Jackunzel Week 2016
by Infrared-Ultraviolet
Summary: From college parties to icicle curses, from high school theater to the end of the world as we know it, there is never a dull moment with these two. Submissions for Jackunzel Week 2016! Various AUs. Rated T for strong language.
1. I Don't Want To Ruin Our Friendship

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

 **Hello, and welcome to Jackunzel Week! Let me start by saying I was originally 1000% NOT going to do this because I already have about 6,000,000,000 fanfictions that I want to write currently stored in my mental "fanfictions I want to write" cache and I'm already in the middle of two of them, so when I saw Jackunzel Week was coming up I was like NO, NO, I WILL NOT START ANY MORE FANFICTION BEFORE I AT LEAST FUCKING FINISH WHAT I ALREADY STARTED. But THEN I started getting this horrible thing called IDEAS and MASSIVE INSPIRATION and THOUGHTS OF "Eh, why the hell not?" So long story short, here we are with 7 gigantic multi-thousand word stories for Jackunzel Week XD Whoops. Oh well, it's been a while since I've written Jackunzel and I didn't realize how much I had a craving to write it until I started doing these.**

 **Oh, and PLEASE, for the LOVE of god, LEAVE REVIEWS! I poured a ton of hours into my life into this thing and it would break my heart if I didn't get any feedback D: Also, like I said above, this thing almost didn't exist so hopefully that makes you more inclined to leave a nice review after you read it :D Or not nice…eh, I can handle constructive criticism. Either way, any feedback is greatly appreciated!**

* * *

 **Word Count: 2041**

 **AU: College AU**

 **UAs: None**

 **Prompt: I Don't Want To Ruin Our Friendship**

* * *

"Another drink?"

The pretty blonde girl held out a red solo cup. Rapunzel shook her head, smiling politely. Jack's arm was looped loosely around her shoulder, and the last thing she wanted was to wake up tomorrow morning and have forgotten how warm and secure it felt. Normally being so close to him would send the butterflies banging against the edge of her stomach, but her mind was intoxicated enough that she was fairly relaxed.

Jack, on the other hand, seemed to have no problems with getting blackout drunk. Giggling, the brunette boy sloppily took the cup from the sorority girl. She shot Rapunzel an anxious glance. Rapunzel wrapped her arm protectively around his waist, as if to say _don't worry, I'll keep him from doing anything stupid._ Not that it was a sure guarantee that _she_ wouldn't do anything stupid, but it seemed she was less likely to than Jack.

Then again, wasn't that always the case? To be fair, the first time she had met him in their 8 a.m., he had poured a Red Bull straight into his cappuccino, looked her dead in the eye, said "I'm going to die," and then proceeded to down the whole thing.

The doorbell of the sorority house rang, and the blonde girl dashed off to answer it, long ponytail swishing behind her. Jack seemed to take no notice, bringing the cup to his lips and downing the drink in one gulp. He belched loudly.

"I think I'm as wasted as the white crayon," he yelled over the music.

She grinned. "I can tell."

He turned and gave her a toothy grin. "Ya know Zellie, yer like…my best friend. Like I'm really glad I met you because you've been missing like…my whole life."

"Saaaaame!" Rapunzel drawled. "I wish we coulda been from the same state so we coulda gone to high school together. That would be so fun!"

"We coulda gone to homecoming together! And prom! And…whassat winter dance called?"

"Winter formal?"

"Yeah, that one!"

Rapunzel found herself eyeing her friend hopefully. All this talk of school dances…was he flirting with her?

"You would've worn the prettiest dress."

Rapunzel's entire body felt like it was going to melt. He _was_ flirting!

He smirked. "But I…I woulda worn the prettiest dress of all!"

"So would I have had to wear a suit, then?" Rapunzel giggled.

"Only if ya wanted to! We could _both_ have been pretty princesses! And won joint prom queen!"

"Nuh-uh, we can't _both_ be the prom queen! That's not even a thing!"

They both burst into a fit of giggles, leaning all over the place in their string of chortles. Rapunzel was certain they both would have toppled over if they hadn't been holding onto each other so tightly.

Tightly…yes, Jack's grip on her shoulder had grown rather firmer, hadn't it?

Even after the laughter had died down, Jack kept looking at her with a crooked sort of smile that made Rapunzel absolutely melt. Although her heart was racing, the vodka swimming through her veins was just potent enough to convince her to take a chance.

They were both drunk. And that meant that anything that was socially taboo—anything that might otherwise threaten the close friendship they'd built up over the past several months—was a go, as long as Jack was okay with it.

"Why don't we go someplace quieter?" Rapunzel suggested.

"Good idea, Zellie. This music is hurtin' my head real bad."

She tugged him up the stairs, away from the blaring music and sweaty, dancing college students. As soon as she found an empty bedroom, she ushered him in and shut the door behind him.

Tittering drunkenly, Rapunzel shoved Jack playfully onto the bed and then gleefully bounced down beside him.

She turned to smile softly at him, although he wasn't paying attention to her. Instead, he was fidgeting with a string on his hoodie, smiling like an idiot all the while.

The childish grin adorning his face as he tied the string in knots and undid it again only confirmed what she had tried so hard to suppress all along. She liked him. She liked him so hard that her brain hurt and her skin sweat and her mouth dried up like she had strep. He was her best friend, and she liked him.

And although the thought of getting together with him made her entire being buzz with electricity and tremble with anticipation, she knew it could never happen. There was too much at stake if they ever broke up, too much at stake if he said no when she confessed how she felt. Rapunzel cringed as she imagined their easy laughs and teasing comments and playful conversations replaced with awkwardness…or worse, the hatred or indifference of heartbreak.

And the thought of losing her best friend for the sake of some stupid feelings made Rapunzel sick. It really did.

And yet here she was, just intoxicated enough to not care about ruining friendships. Besides, whatever happened in here could just be blamed on the alcohol, right?

"I think you're super hot," she said.

Jack gave her a look of mild surprise. "Whoa, really?"

"Yeah!" she bubbled. "You're cute and charming and just all-around really awesome."

"Well, you're super pretty, Punzel!"

Rapunzel's cheeks turned bright pink. "You really think so?"

"Yeah! I'd totally ask you to be my girlfriend if you weren't my best fren an' it would mega-suck if we broke up and had to stop being frens."

Now, sober Rapunzel would've let out a yelp of shock and probably fallen off of the bed after hearing this new piece of information, but drunk Rapunzel had better plans.

Before Jack could do anything, she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. She tried to be as cautious and timid as a drunk girl could be, not wanting to scare him off. To her delight, it wasn't long before he began to return the kiss, and their sloppy lips were working against one another in a flurry of clumsy excitement.

Before they got too into it, Rapunzel pulled away. Jack looked at her like a kicked puppy.

"Whass wrong with me, Punzel?"

She shook her head. "Nothin'. I want to make out with you."

"So why'd you stop?" he asked.

"I wanted to make sure you were cool with it. Didn't wanna force myself on ya or anythin'."

"Oh, you won't be," he assured her. "I dun mind. On a scale of 1 to 10, yer like…a 50,000."

Rapunzel would've preferred some deeper and more thought-out compliments, but who was she to be picky?

Impatience seized her, and before she knew it she had knocked her friend over and pinned him to the bed, smashing her mouth against his. The attempted passion of the kiss made it even sloppier than before, and this time Rapunzel could feel Jack's spit moistening the corners of her mouth. It was actually kind of gross, but she was too busy flipping out over the fact that she was _making out with Jack Overland_ to really take notice.

Jack worked his tongue up between Rapunzel's teeth, and she quickly followed suit. Before long they were exploring one another's mouths. Rapunzel noted that having her tongue collide with someone else's tongue and slide along the edge of their teeth was an odd feeling. In all of her 18 years of life, she had never made out with someone. She'd kissed a couple boys in high school, sure, but never like _this_.

The makeout session grew more and more heated, the two of them wriggling and pressing against one another and letting out the occasional grunt. Rapunzel was sure if anyone walked past the door and heard them, they'd think they were screwing.

But hey, who cared if Rapunzel was getting a little too into it? It's not like she was going to get the chance to do this again anytime soon. That was the problem with constantly wanting to make out with your closest friend.

After what felt like hours, Rapunzel lifted her head so that it was hovering a few inches above Jack's. Her lips parted in a loud yawn.

"I'm really tired, Jack."

"I can drive ya back to tha dorms."

Rapunzel snorted with laughter. "No ya can't, you're even drunker than I am."

Jack took a second to process the fact, and looked very ashamed once he had. "Okay, thass true. We can just crash here if ya want."

"Like…right here?" Rapunzel rolled off of her friend and started to pull back the bed blankets.

"Right here," Jack confirmed, joining her under the covers.

Rapunzel was dead exhausted, but it seemed as though Jack was even more so. The brunette boy was asleep within seconds, his loud snores reverberating off of the bedroom walls. It wasn't long before a trail of drool hung out of his open mouth.

Smiling to herself, Rapunzel wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled herself up against his back, nestling her head into his shoulder. The last thing she remembered before the dingy bedroom faded around her was the steady feel of Jack's heartbeat under her hands.

* * *

When Rapunzel drifted out of her sleep, she felt her arms loosely wrapped around someone next to her. Upon recognizing Jack's mop of brown hair, she was seized by a swath of confusion. She started to panic until all of last night had come back to her. Convincing Jack to go out instead of their usual Friday night video game session, the sorority party, the drinking games, the red solo cup vodka shots, kissing Jack in the bedroom…

Wait… _kissing Jack?_ Rapunzel beamed. Yes, that's right, she _had!_ And she remembered!

"Wha…?"

Jack suddenly jerked awake and whipped around to face her. "Rapunzel, what…?"

"Uh…" She grinned meekly. "Hey."

He shot up into a sitting position, pulling a hunk of blankets defensively over his chest (despite the fact that he was fully clothed). "What did we _do?_ " he asked, brown eyes wide with fear.

Rapunzel bit her lip, wondering if she should tell him the truth. After a moment's hesitation, she decided she would. She couldn't stand lying, even if it was just a little white one with a fairly good reason for it.

"Well, we didn't do _that_. But I think we kissed."

"Oh." Jack looked away, seeming to be less than thrilled about the revelation. Rapunzel's shoulders slumped. _Yep, definitely should_ not _have told the truth about that one._

"Please don't let this make things awkward, okay?" Rapunzel burst out. "I don't want last night to get in the way of our friendship. You're my best friend, and I don't want to lose you."

To her surprise, Jack responded by bursting out laughing. "What's so funny?" she said sharply.

"Rapunzel, we were drunk off our asses! Of _course_ something like that was going to happen. It doesn't change anything."

"Right. Doesn't change anything." Rapunzel smiled wanly, not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed.

"Thank god we were drinking as much water as we were. Otherwise, I'd be having one _shitty_ hangover right now!"

Rapunzel nodded, but she wasn't really listening.

Everything inside of her was deflating. She wasn't really sure what she had expected. A declaration of love? For both of them to wake up and Jack magically be her boyfriend? But no, just like Jack had said…everything was going to go back to the way it was.

 _What are you griping about?_ she scolded herself. _You get to keep your best friend without things getting weird,_ and _you got to kiss him last night and remember the whole thing! You'll always have that to hold onto, even if nothing else ever happens._

"I'm gonna go pee," Jack announced, bouncing off of the bed and disappearing out the door. Rapunzel watched him go, sighing softly to herself. Perhaps this really _was_ the ideal situation…always remembering how his lips felt on hers without actively ruining any friendships, always remembering how his body felt in her arms without letting any dangerous feelings out of their cage in a context where they really mattered.

She laid back on the bed, arms hugging her chest. Yes, this was undoubtedly the best possible outcome.

Wasn't it?

* * *

 **Well, meh. I'll be honest with you guys, this is probably my worst Jackunzel Week drabble. Don't worry, they only get better from here, I think XD In retrospect, this one is really…generic. Like you can substitute any pair of close male/female friends for Jackunzel and the story would be pretty much the same. But hey, I've been wanting to try out the "OTP gets drunk at a college party and makes out while they're still just friends" AU for a while, so…here's my (not particularly well-executed) attempt at that! Oh well. It is what it is, and hopefully it was able to entertain you for a couple minutes. Also, if you've ever seen that tumblr text post about the OP meeting a guy in her 8 a.m. class and mixing an energy drink with coffee and drinking the whole thing…well, that was the inspiration for how Jack and Rapunzel met in this college AU XD One of the rebloggers added "imagine your OTP meeting this way" and my first thought was JACKUNZEL JACKUNZEL JACKUNZEL!**

 **TOMORROW: Jack realizes his feelings for the annoying goody-two-shoes he constantly torments are a bit more complicated than he would like to admit.**


	2. She's Not My Girlfriend

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

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 **Word Count: 5912**

 **AU: Colonial AU**

 **UAs: Ice-skating incident with Jack's sister never happens, Jack doesn't die young**

 **Prompt: She's Not My Girlfriend**

* * *

Jack peeked up over the edge of the snow fort, looking out through the cluster of trees at the edge of the woods and into the meadow. He snickered to himself, mentally applauding how clever he was. In just a few short minutes, that insufferable Corona girl would be passing through the meadow—and then right past his fort—on her way home from the schoolhouse. Heavens, she was annoying—raising her hand to answer every last question, sucking up endlessly to Mrs. Davensworth, scolding anyone who made the slightest mean comment to a fellow kindergartener like she was their mother. Well, in any case, he was just about to wreak havoc on her perfect little day. And he had snuck out of school early and ran all the way here to build the fort to make sure he could do it.

As soon as he saw a little shape making its way across the meadow and heard the _clomp-clomp_ of boots on snow, he grew giddy with excitement. Snickering, he stole a glance at the vast pile of snowballs he had cleverly hidden behind the walls of his icy fortress.

As she grew closer, he picked out the puffy light blue dress and the perfect little braid of blonde hair sticking out from under the bonnet. She was humming some inane song and smiling into the forest like she was about to summon all the woodland creatures to do her bidding for her, which only made Jack all the more eager to pelt her with snow.

The minute she stepped into the woods, a snowball sailed over the fort and smacked her square in the stomach. She yelped and leapt back, giving Jack a satisfied smirk.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel!" he sneered, popping up from behind the fort. He loved saying her name, mostly because it was so dumb. Who named their daughter after a fairy tale princess?

"Bet your prince can't save you now!" he called out, throwing another snowball. It landed smack across her nose, covering her entire face. She wiped it off with a blue-sleeved arm, her shocked expression having turned to one of pure rage.

"You absolute _scoundrel_ , Jack Overland!" she yelled, curling her tiny hands into fists. In response, he threw another snowball, this one exploding on her shoulder.

"Well, you're a know-it-all goody-two-shoes!" he taunted.

"At least I'm not a booger-eating scamp like you!" He threw another snowball, but this time she ducked, and it landed on the tree behind her. He threw another and another, but to his dismay she kept nimbly dodging his attacks. He had hoped to hit her with a few and then send her running away screaming like a sissy, but that didn't appear to be the case. Instead, she stuck her tongue out at him and stood her ground.

He managed to nail her in the arm after a few missed shots, and she let out a long, frustrated groan. "You know what? You're gonna pay for that, Jack Overland. Two can play at this game!"

She picked up a hunk of snow and, with impressive speed, shaped it into a ball and pelted it straight at Jack's face. He ducked behind his snow fort wall just in time. He attempted to rise up again only to duck down just in time for another snowball to whizz right over the top of his head.

He popped up to find his irritating classmate right in the middle of forming another snowball. He flung two pre-made ones at her before she could even finish.

"Ha!" he taunted. "You're never gonna catch up with me. And you can't even get me back here!" With what sounded like a growl, she chucked her snowball at him. Unfortunately for her, he was once again able to hide behind his wall of snow.

The fight continued, and Jack found that Rapunzel had the ability to pick up and make snowballs at alarming speeds. She was even able to get a few to hit him, even though his fort was enough to protect him most of the time. Despite how much she grinded his gears, he had to admit he was rather impressed that she had stayed in the fight as long as she had, even when he was clearly winning. This girl was not about to give up, that was for sure.

"This isn't even fair!" she whined after a while. "Why don't _I_ get a fort?"

He leaned over the wall of snow and smirked at her. "Because you didn't get here early and make one?"

She crossed her arms and pouted. "You _ambushed_ me! I didn't even get the chance!"

"You're more likely to win if you play dirty," Jack pointed out smugly.

"Oh yeah? You wanna see playing dirty?"

Without warning, Rapunzel surged forward and flung herself over the wall of his fort. She tackled him to the ground before he could do anything and shoved one of the snowballs she had been working on right down his shirt.

"Ahhhhh! That's cold! _Stop!_ "

She hesitated, her goody-two-shoes instinct taking over long enough for him to grab some snow and slide it down the back of her dress. She let out a yelp and snatched the biggest handful of snow she could manage, retaliating far more than Jack had been expecting.

For a while they wrestled in the snow, each desperately trying to gain the upper hand. And by "gain the upper hand" it was, of course, meant "get the other to contract hypothermia."

"Jack!"

Jack let out a groan at the familiar sound of his mother's voice. He tried to wriggle out from under Rapunzel, who had pinned him down and was smirking triumphantly.

" _Jack!_ "

Oh great, it was getting closer. His mother was going to see him being defeated by the most irritating girl in the entire kindergarten class (who was also pretty good at snowball fights, although he'd never say that aloud).

He desperately tried to get free as the footsteps approached, but he was still flailing around fruitlessly by the time his mother arrived. He looked up to see Rapunzel smirking, and he pouted.

"Jack, it's getting late," his mother said. Jack glanced up at the sky, not even realizing it had started to turn the deep blue of twilight.

"Why don't you come home and help me start a fire?" his mother went on. "You must be freezing! Bring your girlfriend if you want."

Jack's face burned. "SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" he screamed, finally managing to shove the annoying female off of him.

Jack's mother didn't look convinced, much to his disgust. "Whatever you say. Come along though, it's getting dark out!"

Jack shakily got to his feet, brushing off the massive chunks of snow stuck to his clothes. He started to follow his mother, and noticed Rapunzel was trailing not far behind.

He turned to glare at her. "You are _so_ not coming to my house," he hissed.

Instead of pouting, Rapunzel gave him a sickeningly sweet smile. "Fine. Sore loser!" She turned and skipped away, leaving him absolutely fuming inside.

* * *

Jack sat crouched in the lowermost branch of his favorite birch tree, waiting with barely-concealed excitement. This was going to be the best day of his life! As soon as Rapunzel Corona walked by on the way to the orchard (little goody-goody always insisted on helping her mother pick fruit for the harvest), he was going to pelt her with an entire pailful of acorns. Perhaps Rapunzel had beaten him in a handful of snowball fights over the last three years, but this was one victory she was not going to walk away with.

Two voices drifted over with the autumn breeze, and he rubbed his hands together craftily as he recognized one of them as Rapunzel's. It was beyond him who the other voice belonged to, but it was of little concern. He had spent all day yesterday gathering all those acorns, and now it was nearly time to put them to good use.

A couple minutes later, a familiar blonde annoyance skipped out of the tree cover, and Jack was on her in an instant. Before she knew what was happening, acorns were flying at her left and right, causing her to scream out every time one hit her.

"Jack, you're horrible!" she cried, lifting up her small hands to try and shield her face.

"Whatsa matter, Rapunzel?" he called down mockingly. "Gonna be late to go do _boring grown-up stuff?_ What a loss!"

"Hey! At least I _try_ to help out!" she shot back. "Unlike you, Mr. I'm-gonna-chase-my-dad's-sheep-around-and-make-his-job-harder!"

Jack pouted. "Awwww, but they're so _funny_ when they're all worked up! Bleating and running around like ninnies."

"So not that different from you then, you acorn-throwing idiot?" Rapunzel picked up one of the acorns he had tossed at her and hurled it unexpectedly back at him. It stung as it bounced painfully off of his arm.

" _Hey!_ " He grabbed a handful of acorns and flung them right at Rapunzel's chest, watching them explode off of her like a firework.

"Come on, Jack!"

Jack heaved an inward groan as he realized who the second voice he had heard belonged to. A girl with her red hair in neat pigtails stepped out of the trees, smirking. Mindy Creyton, one of Rapunzel's best friends and also the biggest gossiper in the third grade.

Mindy smirked, clasping her hands behind her back and swaying from side-to-side. "That's no way to romance your _girlfriend!_ " she said in a singsong voice.

"WHAT?" Jack's entire body burned with mortification. "She is NOT my girlfriend!"

"Really?" Mindy made kissy noises. "Because the amount of snowball fights you two have _every single winter_ with _just_ each other would prove otherwise!"

Jack took a break from throwing acorns to cross his arms defiantly. "I just have to show her that I'm a better snowball fighter than she ever will be!"

"That's not true!" Rapunzel shot back. She turned to Mindy. "Why would I ever want that nasty trickster as my boyfriend?"

Mindy gasped, putting a hand over her mouth. "Careful, Punzie! You'll break his secretly-fragile heart!"

"My heart is _not_ secretly fragile," Jack retorted. "And no way is little miss I'm-so-perfect down there my girlfriend!"

"Well, it _is_ a little odd how you never seem to want to throw stuff at any other girl," Mindy pointed out.

Jack looked at his now-half-empty pail of acorns, realizing he was at a loss. He had told himself all day yesterday that every single acorn he picked up had Rapunzel's stupid princess name written all over it, but if he continued, he would just prove Mindy's point. He supposed he could throw some acorns at her in order to disprove the theory that he only threw stuff at Rapunzel, but Mindy Creyton wasn't even worthy of getting hit by an acorn.

"That's only because she's so _annoying_ ," he settled for, pelting Rapunzel with another handful of acorns. She glared up at him briefly before stomping back across the clearing and grabbing onto Mindy's arm.

"Come on Mindy, let's get out of here," she growled. She practically dragged her friend away from the birch tree, and Jack made sure to bombard her with as many acorns as was humanly possible until she was entirely out of range.

* * *

A cool breeze swayed the long green grass as Jack made his way through the meadow. He was on his way back from the hilly expanse where he helped his father tend to their sheep and he was already exhausted and eager to get home and nap, despite the beautiful summer day.

He paused when he noticed someone sitting in the shade of the maple tree in the center of the meadow. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was Rapunzel Corona, canvas in front of her, paintbrush in hand, and wildflowers braided into her now-quite-long blonde hair. He automatically rolled his eyes, although she wasn't doing anything particularly insufferable right now. In fact, if he was honest with himself, Rapunzel hadn't done anything to particularly annoy him in a long while.

She was busy painting a picture, and apparently had either forgotten an easel completely or not even bothered with one. The square of canvas was right out in front of her, and she was hard at work dabbing it with colors from a little pallet beside her, constantly glancing up at the mountains in the distance and then down at the picture again. There was a small smile on her face…a genuine smile, Jack noticed, not the overly sweet plastered-on one she wore around at school.

He stepped out of sight into the cover of the forest, and found himself watching her paint for a while. It was oddly mesmerizing, seeing her head go up and down between the horizon and the picture and watching the rhythmic brush strokes as she tried to capture the towering Appalachians.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been watching her when he spotted another figure marching across the meadow toward Rapunzel. Rapunzel hadn't noticed Jack, thank god—she'd never let him hear the end of it if she did, probably. As he looked closer at the figure, he recognized the gray dress and tight brunette bun of Mary Weste.

When she reached Rapunzel, she started talking loud and fast—and she didn't sound happy. Rapunzel backed away, pressing herself against the trunk of the maple tree. Mary continued to raise her voice until she was almost yelling, and with each octave the brown-haired girl's voice rose, Rapunzel seemed to shrink farther into herself, cowering against the bark of the tree and looking up at her classmate with fear glinting in her big green eyes.

Jack shuffled uncomfortably where he stood. Something about seeing someone yell at Rapunzel like that made him bristle, although the logical part of his brain told him someone else was probably seeing her for the unbearable goody-two-shoes she really was, and he should be rather pleased by the whole situation. Nonetheless, he couldn't help but feel an inexplicable rush of anger.

Perhaps it was only okay when _he_ gave Rapunzel a hard time. Besides, it didn't help that she looked genuinely scared instead of just annoyed.

Mary picked up the painting Rapunzel had been working on and flung it to the ground, issuing a devastated cry from the blonde. Deciding that was the last straw, Jack marched out of the woods and trudged across the meadow in a cloud of rage.

"Hey!" he yelled out. "Leave her alone, you wretch!"

Mary turned around, eyes widening in alarm. It didn't take long for surprise to turn to contempt.

"Oh, look Rapunzel, it's your _other_ stupid scalawag of a boyfriend!" she sneered.

Rapunzel glared at her. "That's a load of hogwash! He's not my boyfriend, and neither is Joe!"

"Huh?" Jack gave both girls an utterly baffled look.

Mary snickered. "She kissed Joe Green!"

Joe Green was, for all intents and purposes, the "dumb muscle" of their class. Already 5 feet and 9 inches tall in the sixth grade, he could make any kid do his bidding by threatening to beat them up. He may not have been smart, but his strength was all he needed to push around anyone he wanted. Why Rapunzel, who prided herself on receiving straight A's and getting along with everyone, would want anything to do with that senseless bully was beyond Jack.

"I _didn't!_ " Rapunzel's eyes met Jack's, like she was begging him to believe her. "Mindy Creyton told everyone that, but it's not true!"

"I believe you," he told her. Although she looked a bit reassured, she didn't smile.

Mary made kissing noises. "Oh, how sweet! Ickle Jackiekins is trying to defend his whore of a girlfriend!"

"She is _not_ my girlfriend!" Jack snapped. "But Rapunzel would never kiss Joe. She's already got the whole damn world wrapped around her finger…why would she need to romance some stupid dunderwhelp?"

Mary rolled her eyes. "She's using her beauty to get an advantage with him, obviously! She thinks if she kisses him, she'll be exempt from getting shoved all over the place. Or worse, she can shove people around _with_ him."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me, have you _met_ Rapunzel? Little miss perfect here could no more have ulterior motives than fly to the moon."

The brunette snorted. "I'm sure that's what she _wants_ you to think! But don't be fooled, the little wench probably wouldn't hesitate to kiss _any_ boy who—"

"Just get out of here, Mary!" he cut in sharply.

"But—"

"LEAVE!"

She looked alarmed by his loud tone, and took a step back. Her face bent into a scowl.

"Fine," she growled. "I'll leave you with your little scarlet letter here."

She stormed off across the grass, and Jack turned back to look at Rapunzel. She was still sitting with her back against the tree, head in her hands.

"So…" He bit his lip. "Why _did_ Mindy Creyton spread those rumors about you?"

Rapunzel looked up, and he could see her green eyes had grown wet with tears. "Mindy lives and breathes drama," she explained with a sniff. "If there isn't any around, she creates her own. And what could be more scandalous than the good girl star student kissing the school bully?"

"But…no one really believes her, right? I mean, Mary did, but…everyone else? I mean come on, it's just so _far-fetched!_ "

Rapunzel sighed. "You'd be surprised. Mindy has her ways of being convincing. I thought being out of school for summer would give me a break from it all…you know, the teasing, the mean comments. But I guess I was wrong."

She looked down again, and Jack made his way over to where her canvas was lying face-down on the grass. Crouching down, he carefully lifted it up by the edges and flipped it over.

"Hey…sorry about your painting, Rapunzel. I'm sure it looked better before it got all smudgey." Unfortunately, the bright and dark greens of the summer forest were now mixed with the bluish of the mountains and the light blue-and-white of the sky. What looked like they had previously been intricately-painted little wildflowers were now just yellow blobs.

"What do you care, anyway?" Jack flinched at the sudden anger in her voice. He turned around to see her glaring at him. "You've been making my life hell ever since we were little!"

"Right…about that…" He stood up and ran a hand through his hair uncertainly. As he glanced from the glowering girl to the ruined painting, and unfamiliar feeling stirred in his chest. It almost felt like…guilt?

"I'm…kinda sorry. I shouldn't have given you such a hard time when we were kids."

She raised her eyebrows. " _Just_ kind of?"

Jack crossed his arms. "Hey! I'm trying to make an effort here!"

Rapunzel smirked. "Well, it's a bit overdue, isn't it?"

"Okay, _maybe,_ " Jack huffed. "But hey, I haven't bothered you lately, have I? I mean, when's the last time I threw stuff at you?"

"Well…" Rapunzel paused to think. "You _did_ drop a bunch of leaves on my head last fall. So…almost a whole year! Wow, congratulations!"

He smirked, going to sit beside her. "Yeah, how I was able to refrain for that long is beyond me."

"Hey!" She swatted him on the arm, but then broke into a chuckle. "Not that I really blame you for not liking me. I _was_ a bit of a show-off, wasn't I?"

"A _bit?_ " Jack raised his eyebrows. "More like a _lot_. Not to mention the _hugest_ teacher's pet ever."

" _Hey!_ " She swatted him again. "I thought you were supposed to be _apologizing!_ "

He groaned. "Really? Ugh, I thought we were done with that. I need to get back to being the biggest nuisance in your life."

"Well, don't hurry!" Rapunzel huffed. After a short silence, she chuckled again.

"Okay, but I _was_ a pretty big teacher's pet." She shuddered. "Kind of makes me cringe to think about it."

"This is the part where I'd normally try to reassure you by saying 'oh, you weren't that bad!' but I would sit upon a throne of lies."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up! Anyhow, I was only like that because my mother told me to be. She was always badgering me to get every grown-up I met to love me so that we'd both look better, and so that the whole village would think she was the best mother. Besides…she was always going on to other grown-ups about her perfect little daughter, and I kind of felt like I had to fulfill all their expectations, you know?"

"Well, I think you did," he told her. "For years, teachers made an example out of you for _everything._ "

Rapunzel smiled lightly. "Well, it was nice for a while, I suppose. I liked that I never had to worry about my grades, and I could get away with a lot…although I never liked being singled out."

"But then in the fourth grade, everyone started teasing you about it," Jack remembered.

Rapunzel nodded. "Right. They didn't leave me alone about being Mrs. Cliffton's favorite, all the rest of that year. Didn't help that no one liked her at all. But after that…I decided I was never going to suck up again, no matter what Mother said."

"I'd definitely say you made the right choice." Jack smirked. "But I have to say, the revelation that you didn't actively _want_ to be a suck-up paints you in a much better light." She rolled her eyes, but he could see the corners of her mouth tugging at a smile.

"Speaking of painting…" Jack crawled over and picked up the smeared canvas, plopping it down on the ground in front of Rapunzel. "What do you say we try to fix this?"

"It's kind of a lost cause…" Her frown gradually faded. "But I guess it's worth a shot."

* * *

"Jack, are you _sure_ about this?"

Rapunzel stood trembling at the edge of the pond, her pink swimsuit showing off her growing curves. Jack, for his part, was wearing nothing but a pair of pants he hoped wouldn't take too long to dry out in the sun later on.

"Rapunzel, come on! If you start drowning, I'll pull you out."

She fiddled with her hair anxiously. "But what if I… _can't_ learn how to swim?"

"Come ooooon, everyone can learn to swim! If I could learn it when I was 5, I'm sure you can learn it when you're 14."

He stepped into the pond, the cool water feeling wonderful after he'd been out in the summer sun all day. Noticing Rapunzel still hesitating on the shore, he reached out a hand to her, and she gladly took it.

He could still feel her trembling as he led her into the pond, so he decided to distract her by making conversation.

"I still can't believe we're actually friends," he mused. "My younger self would be so horrified."

Rapunzel laughed. "Oh, mine would too, believe me. As a matter of fact…" She gazed off into the distance contemplatively for a couple seconds before going on. "There's really nothing to convince me that you wouldn't have just let me drown if we had done this a few years ago."

"I wouldn't have even gone _swimming_ with you a few years ago!" Jack retorted. His face softened as he looked at her. "But you know, even if I had…I don't think I would have let you drown. Then who would I annoy?"

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "You're awful, Jack Overland!"

They walked until the water was up just past their knees, and then suddenly Rapunzel ground to a halt beside him. "Jack?"

"What's wrong?"

"Er…the ground stops here," she said.

He grinned. "Oh, then this is the fun part!"

He whooped as he dived into the open water, going down into the murky depths a little ways before he surged back up and broke the surface. He shook a few drops of water from his shaggy brown hair and started to tread water.

"You wanna see how easy swimming is?" he said. "All you have to do is kick your back legs"—he brought a foot down hard on the surface of the water as he said it—"and move your arms like you're scooping ice cream. Like this." He made the front crawl motions with his arms.

"Just watch me." He made a couple laps around the small pond. On the third lap, he rolled onto his back and started propelling himself through the water like a jellyfish. "Or you could just float like this if you want to be able to breathe!" he called out.

After finishing another lap, he paused in front of Rapunzel and started to tread water. "So? Are you gonna try?"

"I guess so," she muttered. Ever so carefully, she eased herself down onto the bottom of the pond and started to slide off of the edge of the shelf.

All at once, she lost her balance and screeched as she toppled into the deeper water. "Jack, I can't feel the ground!" she screamed, splashing around in an alarmed frenzy.

"Just get on your stomach," he instructed her. "Then start using your arms to move yourself forward."

"I can't!" she yelped. "I can't move forward! _Help!_ "

Jack felt a pang of anxiety. It was clear she wasn't going to get from her vertical flailings-about to the standard swimming position if she was so panicked. "Hold on, I'm coming."

"Jack, hurry!" she screeched, still struggling to stay afloat. He quickly paddled over to her and treaded water with his legs while he used his arms to steady her.

"Now just hold on to me, and move your legs back and forth. Like you're running."

"Okay," she panted, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself close to him to hold herself in place. He clutched her waist as tight as he could with both hands.

"Okay?" he asked.

"Okay." She gave him a breathless smile, her bobbing becoming less erratic and more methodic as she began to tread water with him.

Sudden footsteps followed by a rustling in the bushes made both of them look up. Out of the undergrowth emerged Jack's friend Henry Fallowdale, looking extremely concerned.

"Uh…hi, Henry." Jack smiled awkwardly up at his friend. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard yelling and splashing, so I came here as fast as I could to make sure no one was being pulled to a watery grave by the pond monster of the deep," he replied. His lips slowly curled up into a smirk. "But it looks like you and your girlfriend have everything under control!"

"She's _not_ my girlfriend!" Jack snapped. "Good lord, why do I have to keep _telling_ people that?!"

"Because it's a classic love story!" Henry exclaimed, clasping his hands together. "Boy and girl can't stand each other as children, but then fall _madly in love_ as soon as they grow up!"

Jack scowled at him. "Are you _serious?_ Just because Rapunzel and I happen to not hate each other anymore does _not_ mean we're in love all the sudden!"

"Yeah, we're _just friends,_ " Rapunzel added emphatically.

Henry smirked. "Funny, my parents always told me they said that in grade school. And now they have 3 kids!"

"Oh, get out of here, Henry!" Jack growled. "I'm just teaching her to swim, for god's sake!"

He help up his hands. "All right, all right. I suppose since no one is drowning, my work here is done. You lovebirds have a nice afternoon!"

"We're not lovebirds!" Rapunzel called after him as he trekked off into the shade of the trees.

As soon as he was gone, she turned and gave Jack a concerned look. " _Is_ there really a pond monster?"

He let out an exasperated sigh. "If there was, it would've had the decency to come up and take us out of our misery by now."

* * *

"See? I told you you would like it!"

Rapunzel scooted out next to him on the oak tree branch, looking out over the sweeping forest. It was bursting with spring blossoms, the dark green of the pine trees mixed with white, light pink, and pale green. She could even see the mountains rising smoothly in the distance, silhouetted softly against the sunset clouds. The air was thick with the fresh smell of rain and the new plants it had brought out of their winter hiding.

"Wow," she breathed. "It's so beautiful." Jack smiled to himself and reached out to grab her hand. He felt her lace her fingers with his, and there was a warm stirring in his chest.

"And see waaaaay over there?" He pointed to a small clearing in the distance, where the slanted rooves of cabins were just barely visible. "That's our little village. You can see the whole thing from here. In just a little bit, all the lights will come on."

Rapunzel leaned her head up against his shoulder, and he felt an excited shiver run down his spine.

"I still can't believe it took you _two years_ to ask me out, Jackson," she murmured teasingly.

"Yeah, well…" Jack's cheeks grew bright pink, and he was thoroughly relieved that the dying light made it harder to see. He wasn't about to tell Rapunzel how absolutely terrified he had been to tell her how he felt.

"It's not like we've even been doing anything different," he insisted. "We _always_ go into the woods and climb trees."

"Yeah, but now we get to hold hands," she pointed out playfully.

"Okay, fair enough. We _do_ get to hold hands."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the sun begin to sink behind the mountains. After a while, Rapunzel prodded him playfully in the side.

"Still can't believe you took so long."

He let out an agitated sigh. "I was scared, all right? I was scared you didn't like me back."

Rapunzel snorted. "You dumb dingbat! I've _always_ liked you. Even when I hated you, I liked you."

Jack chuckled. "Yeah…same here."

He turned to look at her, the green of her eyes matching the green of the early spring leaves as she gazed out into the forest in wonder. The last rays of sun were catching her hair in just the right way, giving it a luminescent golden glow. In that moment, Jack wasn't sure he'd ever seen anyone look more beautiful.

She turned and gave him a curious smile. "What are you looking at?"

"You," he replied. "Just you."

And before he could have second thoughts, he wrapped his arms around her neck and pressed his mouth to hers. He could feel her freeze under his touch, clearly surprised, but it didn't take her long to reciprocate. As he pushed her against the tree trunk, she put her arms around his waist and pulled him as close to her as she could until he was practically sitting on her lap. He folded his legs over the top of hers, paying no mind to how both pairs of legs were swinging lazily over the side of the branch in a tangled mess as the two 17-year-olds' lips worked against one another's. Jack wasn't sure how long they sat up in that tree, kissing and holding each other and breathing in the fresh night air whenever they stopped to catch their breath. All he knew was that he never wanted it to end.

"Jack!"

Jack suddenly pulled away from Rapunzel, embarrassment burning all through his skin. His sister sure had impeccable timing, didn't she? He had been so focused on kissing Rapunzel that he hadn't heard her approaching. He was never going to hear the end of this, he was sure.

He looked down to where Emma was standing at the base of the oak tree with her arms crossed. "Oh sorry, was I interrupting a moment with your girlfriend?"

"Sh—she's not my girlfriend!" Jack stammered.

She raised her eyebrows. "Um…I _literally_ just saw you two kissing."

"Y—yeah, but…" Jack ran a hand anxiously through his hair. "It's just the first date…it's not like we've _decided_ on things yet…"

"Well, _Mother_ says you've 'decided on things' since you both were 5."

" _What?_ " Jack let out a disbelieving snort. "Don't listen to her!"

"Well, _you'd_ better listen to her because she wants you to come home _right now_ , and if you don't you'll be churning the butter for a month!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Jack clambered down the tree, Rapunzel not far behind.

"Hey, sorry I have to go," he said. "I wouldn't want to sit through one of my mother's lectures about not being out so late."

The blonde nodded. "That's understandable."

"Why don't you walk back with us?" he offered, holding out his hand. She smiled and took it, and they started on their way back to the village side-by-side with Emma. The little girl constantly shot her brother knowing smirks, and he responded with his most searing dirty looks.

* * *

The whole town square was strung with flower chains, reaching from cottage to cottage and stretching to the ground from the pole in the center of the clearing. The wooden chairs that had previously crowded the square had been taken away to make room for people to dance, but the wooden arch woven through with white lilies under which the wedding vows had been said still remained.

Emma was busy strewing the last of her basket of flower petals around the clearing, still having quite a few left over from the ceremony. Admittedly 16 was a bit old to be a flower girl, but Jack had promised his sister she could be the flower girl at his wedding since she was 4.

Henry, for his part, was busy flirting with some young lady who had just moved into town, brushing off his polished best man's suit. Jack imagined he was having a great time bragging about how he had _always_ said that the Overland boy and the Corona girl were going to get hitched, and lo and behold, look what happened! Jack rolled his eyes, but decided this was a victory he was willing to let his friend have.

Mindy Creyton and Mary Weste had both put their hair up in elegant braids wrapping around their heads for the ceremony. They were constantly smoothing out their gowns, which were an ugly washed-out blue and pink respectively, and fixing their cheap jewelry. Jack still wished Rapunzel hadn't had to invite them—the downside to living in such a small village is you were pretty much expected to invite the entire village to any important event—but he decided that not having dates and having to take turns dancing with Joe Green was punishment enough.

But if anyone was the crowning jewel of the ceremony, it was the bride. Spinning around in her glittering white dress with her hair flowing out behind her like a cascading golden waterfall, she looked like some sort of goddess. Jack watched her across the clearing with a contented smile.

"So." Jack started at his mother's voice behind him. He turned to see the brunette woman walk up to stand beside him, giving him a knowing smile. "Is she _still_ not your girlfriend?" she teased.

"No, she's not," he replied with a smirk. "She's my wife."

* * *

 **WHEW. Holy shit, this was LONG! Like damn, the story wasn't supposed to be that complex but I had this idea of "what if we had a 'through the years' montage type thing where Jack always says 'she's not my girlfriend!' but then at the end there's a plot twist and SHE'S HIS WIFE INSTEAD?" And, of course, I had to follow through with it no matter how long it took, and the more I wrote on the story, the more complicated it got, so much so that I gave both Jack and Rapunzel CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT in what was supposed to be a ONE-SHOT XD The whole childhood rivalry they had going on was a very interesting idea to work with, mainly because in my person headcanon it's difficult for me to see then as anything BUT best friends as kids XD So this was a definitely a change of pace. But, come to think of it, I can defs see Rapunzel being annoyed by Jack's excessive pranking as a kid and mellowing out a bit as she got older. Apologies if young!Rapunzel seems a little OOC here. I feel like I made her a bit more aggressive and tsundere than she is in canon ^^; In my defense, people's temperaments can change a LOT as they grow up. Like I was a super belligerent, nasty kid who would always pick fights just for the hell of it, and now I'm the most easygoing, chill person ever. So that's my excuse for tsundere Rapunzel XD Also I had a blast looking up old-fashioned insults to use in this. Dunderwhelp indeed!**

 **(Also I find it funny that I hate teacher's pets so much in real life that I couldn't just let Rapunzel naturally be that way; I had to have someone else pressure her to suck up XD)**

 **TOMORROW: Rapunzel tries desperately to save the boy she loves from a horrible curse, determined to fulfill a promise she made to him.**


	3. Releasing from the Promise

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Word Count: 2373**

 **AU: Icicle!Jack AU**

 **UAs: None**

 **Prompt: Releasing from the Promise**

* * *

Rapunzel wasn't entirely sure what she was expecting to find when she finally found her way to the dark room hidden deep in Pitch's lair, past all of the spiked black birdcages and dark stone bridges and inky stalactites. Past the point where any eerie white light could filter in from the gaps in the ceiling. Past the throne where the Nightmare King himself kept watch over his dark kingdom.

She knew Jack wasn't going to be himself. She knew Pitch had changed him, corrupted his heart. She knew when walked into the room where the boy she loved was being kept, he wouldn't be the Jack she remembered.

But when she used her stolen key to unlock the door and slowly pushed it open, what she saw was so much worse than anything she could have imagined.

She didn't even recognize the hunching shape in the corner as human at first. She assumed it was some sort of dresser or chair that had been completely frozen over in the neverending chill of this awful place. As soon as it began rising up, she backed up against the wall, startled.

"I've already told you, I'm not going and making anyone else cold today," came a tired voice. "You've made me do enough."

"Jack?" she called out uncertainly.

He whipped around, blue eyes filling with terror as soon as he saw her. "Rapunzel? What are you doing here?"

Rapunzel sucked in her breath. She had tried so hard to believe that the _thing_ she saw earlier wasn't Jack, but now it was unmistakable.

His entire torso was covered in long, razor-sharp icicles, and his hair, which had once stuck up in soft, white waves, was now completely frozen over. His skin had been pale before, but now it was a stark white. His staff lay on the ground next to him, completely coated in ice.

"Jack!" she gasped. "Oh my god, what did he do to you?"

She ran toward him, wanting to find a way to kiss him, touch him, anything. In response he backed hastily away, eyes still wide with fear.

"N—no!" he stammered. "Don't come near me! Everyone only ever gets hurt when they touch me…"

Rapunzel's heart broke at the haunted look in his eyes as he said it. It sounded like he was speaking from a lot of experience.

"The icicles…they can cut right through flesh…" he whimpered.

She took another several steps toward him, and this time he backed away more slowly, pressing himself as close against the wall as he could with icicles protruding from his back.

"What did Pitch do to you?" she repeated.

"He…he tried to make me join him, after he captured me. I refused, and then somehow…I don't know how he did it, but he made my powers go out of control and made me freeze myself."

"And he's been keeping you locked up all this time?" she gasped.

"Well, not exactly. He…convinced me that no one would ever want to be near me like this, that everyone would be scared of me. He said that the other Guardians would reject me …he said that _you_ would reject me because you could never touch me. So I stayed. There's no other place for me in the world."

Rapunzel's eyes darkened. "That's completely idiotic," she growled. "I'll still love you no matter what you look like! And why would the Guardians turn you away for something that's not your fault? You only ended up like this because you were trying to do the right thing!"

He looked at her with a pained expression. "Because I could kill children if they ever try to touch me? Because I can't even walk through the woods without some curious animal _dying_ because they get too close?"

She wanted more than anything to hold him close, to tell him everything would be all right. But she knew if she got injured by the icicles, it would hurt Jack far more than it would ever hurt her. And she couldn't be the reason for him seeking even deeper into despair.

"We'll figure something out, okay?" she whispered. "We'll find a way to make you better. I'm sure North can think of something…" Jack looked at her skeptically.

"But you can't stay here with Pitch!" she went on. "He's…he's vile and cruel and he keeps telling you things that aren't true so you'll stay with him and he'll have someone to push around! He was the one who did this to you, and you want to stay with him?"

"I don't _want_ to, I _have_ to!" Jack spat, suddenly growing angry. "I have to stay where I can't hurt anyone, even if it means being with Pitch. And I have to keep doing what he says, or else…he says he could make it even worse…"

"Wh—what?" Rapunzel stared at him in horror.

"He says if I don't behave, he can make icicles come out of my face too. And my hands and my legs. I'll be completely untouchable."

Rapunzel shot a seething look at the door, and then looked back at him. "That's it," she hissed. "I _have_ to get you out of here now."

Jack shook his head. "No, _you're_ the one who has to get out of here," he whimpered. "It's too late for me. If you ended up getting hurt because of me, I don't think I could ever forgive myself. And if Pitch finds you here…who knows what he'll do? Just…just leave. Before anything happens."

"But—"

"Just get out of here, Rapunzel!" The words came out harsher than Jack had intended, but he didn't care. She winced, but made no move to leave.

"GET OUT OF HERE OR I'LL FREEZE YOU!" He picked up his staff and pointed it straight at her. Maybe scaring her into leaving was the best approach.

He took a threatening step towards her, but she still didn't move. "Why can't you just leave me alone?" he snarled. "Why can't everyone leave me alone? The Jack you knew is _gone_ , so just let it go!"

Rapunzel could tell he was trying to build up icy walls, trying to shut her out. But she wasn't going to let that happen.

" _No!_ " she said defiantly, standing her ground. "I made you a promise, Jack Frost, and I intend to keep it!"

His eyes softened slightly at the word "promise," and he slowly lowered his staff.

"Remember that, Jack?" she whispered. "How we were out on the lake, watching the lanterns I'd always wanted to see from that little boat…and you told me you were in love with me, but you were just so _terrified_ because you thought you would have to watch me grow old without you. And your whole face just lit up like the moon when I showed you my hair…how it could glow, heal, keep someone young forever…and I told you how if I sang that healing song every day, I could join you. And then I…"

She felt tears begin to wet her eyes as she continued to look at him. "I promised you I'd always love you and be there for you, and I'd spend eternity with you. You think I'm going to back out now, when you need me the very most?"

A smile gradually tugged at the corners of Jack's mouth, although Rapunzel could see tears pooling in his eyes as well.

"It's okay, Zellie," he said, his voice cracking. "I'm letting you off the hook with that one."

Rapunzel gave him a perplexed look. "You're what?"

"Well, you made the promise to _me_ , right?" he said. "So I'm telling you right here, right now that I'm letting you out of it. You _don't_ have to spend forever with me."

Rapunzel started to make her way toward him. Jack instinctively backed away, but Rapunzel shook her head ever so slightly.

"Just trust me," she whispered. Reluctantly, he stayed put. He still seemed to flinch a little when she reached out and rested her hand on his cheek.

His skin had always been cool, but now it felt like it was laced with actual ice. Despite the biting cold eating into her hand, she forced herself to keep it there. "Jack…I _want_ to spend forever with you," she whispered.

"And I want to spend forever with you," he replied, sounding broken. "I love you, Zellie. But it would make me so much happier if you stayed away. Kept yourself safe. Can you do that for me?"

She gently massaged his cheek. "Would that really make you happy?"

"Well, no…but it would put my mind at ease. You're not safe around me _or_ Pitch."

She reached out and rested her other hand on his other cheek, pulling his face forward before he could protest. He let out a yelp of alarm, but she leaned delicately over the icicles on his chest and kissed him hard. His lips were stiff and frigid beneath hers, but after a few seconds he cautiously began to kiss back. He may have been blisteringly cold, but the way his mouth moved gently against hers assured her that he was still her Jack.

"Too bad," she murmured after she finally pulled away. "You're not getting rid of me that easily. I'm not giving up on you, Jack, and I'm going to keep my promise to you, even if you don't think I need to."

Jack let out a frustrated sigh. "I _literally_ just let you off the hook! I've already told you, I'm not going to be offended if you don't follow through with staying with me forever. And I'm not just saying that, I really do mean it. It's so much more important that you're safe than that you keep some dumb promise."

"I don't care," she said stubbornly. "As long as my hair can keep me young, I'm going to stay with you."

 _Wait…my hair…_ she thought.

Rapunzel quickly began to gather up her hair and cautiously began to wrap it around Jack's chest, careful not to let it get too close to any of the icicles' pointed ends.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked.

"Saving you," she replied casually, continuing to wrap her hair around him.

He sighed, giving her a downcast look. "It's not going to work."

"At least let me try!" she retorted. To her relief, Jack didn't struggle or protest. When she had finished wrapping him in her hair, she closed her eyes and started to sing.

" _Flower gleam and glow_

 _Let your powers shine_

 _Make the clock reverse_

 _Bring back what once was mine_

 _Heal what has been hurt_

 _Change the fate's design_

 _Make the clock reverse_

 _Bring back what once was mine_

 _What once was mine_ "

The golden glow faded as she finished the song, and she looked over Jack to see if anything had changed. Every last icicle was exactly the same, just as long and cold and sharp as before.

"No," she whimpered. "Why isn't this working?"

She tried again, and once more, but the icicles didn't start to melt in the slightest. Jack watched her as she went, blue eyes drained.

"Rapunzel." He reached out and put a hand on her arm after the sixth time. "Stop. You can't save me. No one can."

"N—no, there has to be a way!" she cried, eyes swimming with tears again. "I can't just let you stay like this. I have to save you!"

"Rapunzel…hey…"

"Why can't I help you? I'm so _useless._ _Why won't my stupid hair work?_ " she added through clenched teeth.

He let his hand slide down her arm and laced his fingers with hers. "Don't you dare be mad at yourself, Zellie," he told her sternly. "It's not your fault. You did the best you could. It's going to be okay—"

"No, it's not!" she sobbed, starting to get hysterical. Several tears fell from her eyes and landed one by one on the icy boy's chest. Each one made a sizzling noise as it hit, making her look up.

Her eyes widened as she realized every tear that landed on him seemed to be absorbed into the ice in a tiny golden flower of light. She and Jack exchanged a puzzled look.

Rapunzel gasped as golden streams of light suddenly began to sidle out of Jack's chest, wrapping around him like liquid sunbeams. Through the bright golden light, she could make out the icicles melting one by one, running in trails of dripping water down Jack's legs. Wet blonde hair fell to the floor with a heavy _thump_ , spikes of ice no longer holding it in place.

When the light faded, all that was left of the icicle prince was a shivering and soaking teenage boy in a blue hoodie. Rapunzel let out a cry of delight and surged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around him. He hugged her back even tighter, and they stayed that way for a long time, laughing and crying and wanting to never let go.

At last Rapunzel pulled her head back so that she could meet Jack's eyes. "You saved me," he murmured. "I guess I shouldn't have underestimated you."

"I wouldn't have given up until I did," she replied.

He gave her a crooked smile. "You know…I'm still letting you out of that being-with-me-forever thing. If you get bored of me, or decide there's someone cooler you want to spend eternity with—"

"Nope," Rapunzel cut him off. "You can try and let me out of this all you want, but I'm sticking to my word. When I make a promise, I never, _ever_ break that promise."

"Even if you're formally released from it?"

"Even if I'm formally released from it."

"Well, I guess I can't complain." He leaned forward and kissed her deeply. Rapunzel was delighted to find that his lips had gone back to being cool and soft like they used to be. She kissed him for a long time, not caring that the cold, wet hoodie pressed against her thin dress was starting to send shivers through her.

"All right." After they pulled apart, she took his hand and started to lead him to the door. "Let's go home."

* * *

 **YASSSSS Icicle!JackxRapunzel! I've been wanting to write about this pairing for a long while, and now I've finally gotten the chance! I've seen plenty of fics with Dark!JackxRapunzel, but none with Icicle!JackxRapunzel. So I guess I'm the first! I'm just really fascinated by the idea of Icicle!Jack, and the thought of Rapunzel still loving him and trying to save him after he's literally covered in freezing spikes and basically kills anything he touches provides me with the delicious angst I constantly crave and also warms my cold black heart. I pretty heavily based the Icicle!Jack in this story on One-Cannot-See's Icicle Jack Frost profile on deviantart, so definitely check that out if you want to see where I got a lot of my inspiration! Hmmmm…if I get the chance, I might do more with this AU, because I really, really like it. ENOUGH ANGST TO KEEP MY UNHEALTHY ADDICTION IN CHECK FOR A LONG TIME! But if I DO come back to this, it probably won't be for a while since I have so many other projects to work on ^^;**

 **TOMORROW: Jack decides it can't be the end of the world if he tells Rapunzel he loves her…because the end of the world is already happening. Now he's running out of time to tell her how he feels, and it seems that every conceivable thing is getting in the way.**


	4. Interrupted Declaration of Love

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Word Count: 3570**

 **AU: 2012/Apocalypse AU**

 **UAs: None really, but if it wasn't clear in the story, this is white-hair-blue-eyes Jack, not brown-hair-brown-eyes Jack**

 **Prompt: Interrupted Declaration of Love**

* * *

Jack yanked Rapunzel out of the way just in time for another car from the collapsing freeway to careen past them. He tried not to think about how a building had toppled over where he and his friend had been mere seconds ago, or how the ground was cracking like an eggshell all around them. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed dead ahead and his legs pumping as fast as they could go. _Run, run, run!_

It was funny how fast you could go when outrunning a catastrophic earthquake, despite being absolute shit in gym class. Rapunzel, for her part, was matching his pace exactly, despite how she had told him many times how much she absolutely loathed the yearly Fitnessgram "pacer test." Adrenaline was one hell of a drug, apparently.

It was also funny how he had been taking a trigonometry final when the apocalypse hit. It sort of put things into perspective, especially considering the entire school had been sucked into a chasm and he and a handful of classmates had just barely escaped.

At least his crush of 3 years was in his trig class. It was a scary thought that if the apocalypse had struck just one period later, he would have no idea where she was, or if she was even alive. But as it was, she was running right next to him, and that gave him at least one thing to be happy about.

The rest of the class—and the rest of the surviving students and staff, for that matter—had scattered, but Jack was determined to not let Rapunzel out of his sight. "Whatever you do, _do not_ let go of my hand," he had told her when they first started their exhausting trek across town.

Really, if it hadn't been for all of the falling buildings and cars and billboards sliding every which way, he would've enjoyed holding her hand more.

"Is the escape ship close?" Rapunzel yelled out to him.

"It should be landing downtown, so we've only got a little ways more to go," he yelled back.

"But downtown seems dangerous! Are you sure these escape ships are even real?"

Jack had to admit, he had been thinking the same thing. Downtown _did_ seem even more dangerous than the rest of the city, with towering office buildings that could easily crush any civilians within a 400-foot radius. But from the small snippet of news he caught on the TV a few days ago, that's exactly where the escape ships were going.

Not a week ago he had dismissed the whole apocalypse as a load of crap, and had snickered at the thought of anyone who would fund escape ships for a completely fictional doomsday. But lo and behold, it was very much _not_ fictional, and thank god a handful of rich people had been just crazy enough to spend their extra cash on the project. Still debatable if the escape ships had been a hoax, though.

"I don't know," he admitted to Rapunzel. "But they're the best chance we've got. We can't outrun this earthquake forever!"

As he led her through the crumbling city and past multiple raging fires from explosions, one nagging thought kept prodding at his mind. Despite their best efforts to avoid the damage and reach the ship—if it was even real, that was—they could still be killed at any second by a flying piece of debris or a falling building behind them they happened not to see.

And that meant he should probably tell Rapunzel how he felt about her.

He pulled her onto a street leading to downtown that, at least thus far, seemed surprisingly earthquake-free. Once he had gotten her far enough away from the destruction of the other streets, he stopped in his tracks, jolting the blonde girl to a stop beside him.

"Why are we stopping?" she asked, voice heavy with accusation.

"Rapunzel, listen." He turned and gripped her shoulders tightly, and green eyes met blue. "We…we need to talk."

She looked at him incredulously. "Right _now?_ Can't this wait until we get on the ship?"

He bit his lip anxiously. "Thing is…I don't know if we're ever going to make it to the ship. And if we _don't_ , well…I just want you to know that I—"

Suddenly, the ground caved in beneath his feet, and Rapunzel screamed. He plummeted into the gaping crack, and just barely managed to grab hold of the edge of the chasm with his fingertips. Rapunzel grabbed his hands and hurriedly wrenched him up, tugging him away from the widening fissure.

"And _there's_ the earthquake," he muttered. "Just when I thought we could catch a break!"

Rapunzel was staring at him in horror. "You almost died!"

"Yeah, uh…thanks for saving me. But I like your idea, I think we should wait until the ship to talk."

Rapunzel nodded, and they were off running toward downtown again, avoiding sprouting clefts in the ground and explosions from crashing cars as best they could. By the time they reached downtown, many of the office buildings had already collapsed—by and large a good thing, considering there were less things that could crush them now. There was rubble blocking various roads, but it had already been somewhat trampled and wasn't that hard to pick their way through.

"We're almost there," Jack whispered to Rapunzel. "Lincoln Square. That's where the ship is stopping."

A couple more turns and a couple more sidestreets and they were on Lincoln way. Jack beamed as he led them around a final pile of rubble. "Ah, here we—"

Yes, here they were. This was definitely Lincoln Square, with the giant sign sticking up out of a patch of grass declaring it. But there was no ship here—just a bunch of panicked people running all over the place and looking frantically around, probably here for the same reason as Jack and Rapunzel.

 _Shit._

He exchanged a concerned glance with Rapunzel. "Where's the ship?" he called out, hoping he didn't sound completely crazy.

An agitated young man with his cell phone to his ear turned and called out, "It just left! I think there's another ship leaving a couple miles out of town, though. Out on I-47."

"Out of town, great," he muttered. "How are we going to get there in time? Rapunzel, what do you—"

He realized with a sinking feeling that she had slipped away from him. Frantically looking around, he screamed her name over and over.

"Jack, over here!" He turned toward the voice, and realized with a prickle of embarrassment that she was only standing a few feet away, holding up a set of keys. "Someone dropped their keys while they were making a dash for the ship," she told him.

"Great!" He grinned, but it quickly morphed into a concerned expression. "But uh…whose car do they belong to?"

"I know how to find out!" She pressed a button, and the lights of a pink car in the middle of a line of cars parked along the curb flashed.

Jack slapped his hand to his forehead. "Right. Auto-unlock. Forgot about that."

Rapunzel scrambled into the driver's seat, and Jack hurried to the other side of the car to get into the passenger's. As she hurried to start the car, he realized this was as good a chance as any to tell her what he hadn't finished earlier.

"Okay, um…now that we're not running anymore, I've got something to tell you."

"What?" she asked, turning the key in the ignition.

"I—"

"JACK, GET OUT OF THE CAR!" she screeched suddenly.

Jack surged out the front door and pelted down the street just in time for a mammoth building to come crashing down on top of the car where they had just been. He turned to see Rapunzel standing safely a few feet away, and let out a relieved breath.

After he had caught his breath, he let out a long sigh. "Well…there goes our ride."

"Not quite!" He turned to see Rapunzel had opened the door to an unlocked car at the very end of the curb—one of the only ones that hadn't been destroyed by the falling building they had narrowly escaped. She poked her head inside and pulled it out, grinning. "Oh, and look at that! They even left their key in the admission."

"Wow." He smirked. "People were really in a rush to get on that ship, huh?"

Jack slipped into the driver's seat, this time letting Rapunzel take the passenger's. Although he had been happy to let her drive before, the more he thought about it, the more he had doubts. He was sure Rapunzel was an excellent driver, but right now they didn't need an excellent driver—they needed someone who was willing to break every last traffic law to guarantee their escape. And that someone was undoubtedly Jackson Overland Frost.

"Ready for a wild ride?" he asked her, grinning.

She gave him a concerned look as she buckled her seatbelt. "Jack, I'm not sure that's—AAAAHHHHH!"

She shrieked as the car lurched to life and soared right across the grass of Lincoln square, just barely dodging a couple of the trees that were still upright. Once they had gotten onto a still-intact road, she seemed relieved—until the car screeched as he drove onto a sidewalk to skirt a pile of rubble. Her screams continued as they turned into a neighborhood and smashed through several picket fences to avoid the crack-ridden road.

"Do you really have to drive like this?" Rapunzel shouted. They had just plowed through a cluster of well-trimmed bushes whilst avoiding a massive chunk of road that had been shoved up into a crumbled pile of asphalt. "This is really illegal!" she added.

"It's the end of the world, I don't think cops are too preoccupied with giving out tickets!" Jack shouted back.

"Well, good thing I didn't do any of this on my driver's test!" He turned and smiled at her. Leave it to Rapunzel to still try and crack jokes with him during the apocalypse, despite clearly panicking her ass off. Just another thing on the long list of reasons he was pretty sure they were soulmates.

Jack could only hope as he dodged falling buildings, debris, and firestorms and drove across any terrain that looked relatively flat that I-47 hadn't already crumbled to the point of being unusable. It wasn't an elevated freeway, so at least it couldn't collapse like several others had.

"Are we almost there?" Rapunzel asked him anxiously.

"To the freeway, yeah," he replied. After screeching around a couple more corners and dodging a couple of dismantled gas station signs, he saw what was probably the most welcoming sight in the world. Stretched out in front of them was the wide expanse of I-47, a little cracked and beat up, but other than that not too worse for wear. Other cars were zooming down it toward the escape ship, indicating it was still pretty driveable.

"Phew!" Rapunzel let out a relieved laugh. "I can't believe how lucky we are. I mean, it would've been so easy for there to be an earthquake—"

"Don't jinx it, Zellie," he cut her off.

"Uh…Zellie?" she questioned, giggling.

Jack's cheeks grew pink. Did he seriously just accidentally give her a nickname?

"So…what was it you wanted to tell me earlier?" she asked. "You know, before we nearly got crushed like bugs."

Oh no. This just kept getting worse.

Perhaps earlier it had seemed natural to give an emergency love confession, but now, with them driving down a relatively danger-free road on their way to safety, it seemed too dramatic. Especially considering they might actually survive after all.

"I…just wanted to say thank you for saving my life," he settled for. "I know I kind of brushed it off earlier, but you know…"

"We were running for our lives," Rapunzel finished.

"Yeah, exactly. Anyway….that was really, really brave of you. I seriously owe you one for that."

"Oh, don't mention it." He glanced over to see Rapunzel studying her lap, playing with the strings on her shorts. "I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

"Of course!" he told her emphatically. And he didn't doubt for a single second that he would risk his own life to pull Rapunzel out of a chasm, or push her out of the way of a falling building, or shield her from a flying fireball…anything for her, really.

He wondered if she would do all that for him as well, but he doubted it. Perhaps saving his life had been nothing more than a spur-of-the-moment thing. Or worse, done out of the fear of being alone.

They drove in silence for a few minutes. As Jack was focusing on skirting an especially large crevice, he heard Rapunzel groan beside him.

"No phone service," she said. "None of my texts are sending."

Of course. Of _course_ the radio towers had to collapse, too. Of course there was no cell phone service when literally everyone was desperate to get in touch with their loved ones.

"Great," he muttered. "That's just fucking great."

"Maybe they'll fix it?" Rapunzel mused.

"Maybe." Jack wasn't convinced anyone would bother, but he wasn't about to crush Rapunzel's hope.

It was then that he heard a shrill whistling coming from outside the window, followed by an enormous crash that made the entire road tremble. Jack glanced in the rear-view mirror and sucked in his breath. What could only be described as an enormous ball of fire had smashed into the road right behind them, shattering the pavement and leaving a long trail of smoke in its wake.

 _Fuck. Not the volcano too._

Okay, perhaps for most of his life kids in the other 49 states had been jealous of him, but right now living in Hawaii sucked.

"Jack? What is that?" Rapunzel asked fearfully as 2 more explosions sounded on either side of them

"Uh, Rapunzel? I think you might wanna take back what you said earlier. About us being lucky."

A fireball crashed down in the middle of the road, and Rapunzel screamed as they swerved around it. Another pelted down in front of them, and another, and another, until Jack was tracing an irregular squiggly line down the road and wondering if the back of the car had caught on fire. Jack's heart was hammering out of his chest, and he realized he had started screaming as well.

 _Shit. We're gonna die. It's really happening this time. Fuckfuckfuckfuck._

As he dodged another fireball, he bit his lip, realizing what that meant. He took a deep breath. Shitty timing, to be sure, but it was now or never.

"Rapunzel!" he shouted. "Listen to me, if we don't make it out of this thing alive, I need you to know…"

"What?" she shrieked. "What is it?"

" _I'm in love with you!_ "

Her screaming ceased, replaced by a stunned silence. Jack's insides burned. _Oh god. I fucked up. I fucked up._ Even when he spotted the hovering escape ship in the distance, he found himself wishing one of the fireballs would land on their car and put him out of his misery.

Neither of them said anything as he pulled over to the shoulder of the road and parked behind the long line of cars, all there for the escape ship. They jumped out of the car and raced toward the crowd of people shoving their way into the aircraft.

She still said nothing as they got in line, although he could see her shaking violently. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her but also trying to keep her close to him in the massive crowd. She stiffened under his touch, but didn't try to push him away.

Jack studied the ground as they shuffled their way in. He wasn't going to try and make Rapunzel talk. He knew he had just dropped a bombshell on her, and she needed some time to process it.

He was tempted to be mad at himself for saying it, but forced himself to push the feeling away. It was a miracle they had survived the falling fireballs, and any slightly less lucky shmuck would've been burned to a crisp. It was a perfectly reasonable time for a love confession.

But the aftermath of it…that was going to be the hard part.

They both stepped into the escape ship to find themselves in a crowded hallway. Without warning, Rapunzel jerked away from him and shoved herself into an enormous throng of people. "W—wait!" Jack called out, but she didn't even turn around as she disappeared from sight.

* * *

Jack sat hunched by the window curving around the back of the ship, watching as the smoking, broken city grew farther and farther away. The surrounding land around had been completely set ablaze by the volcanic fireballs. It was a horrible sight, but somehow Jack couldn't tear his eyes away.

He wondered how many of his friends were dead. If his family was dead. If he would ever see them again, even if they weren't. All he had left was Rapunzel, and now she was—

The observation deck door suddenly creaked open, and Jack turned to see the blonde standing in the doorframe, offering him a weak smile.

She walked over and sat down beside him on the floor, hugging her knees to his chest. She followed his gaze, watching with him as their ruined home slipped farther and farther away.

"I love you too," she said after a short hesitation.

"Wait, WHAT?" Jack turned and stared at her in utter shock. Okay, this was fake. It had to be. There was no way the girl he'd been in love with since forever felt the same way, especially considering she had nearly had a panic attack when he told her earlier. This was all some kind of warped daydream that included the end of the world, for some reason. And in a second the bell was going to ring, signaling the end of his trigonometry test, and he was going to have wasted the rest of the period fantasizing about surviving the apocalypse with his crush.

"I love you too," she repeated. It felt more real this time, although definitely not any less strange.

Through the wild turmoil of emotions that followed, Jack managed to give her a feeble grin. "Well, why didn't you tell me earlier? You would've saved me a lot of grief!"

Rapunzel fiddled with a piece of hair. "I…kind of froze up. Like I was just so shocked when you said it because I've loved you for, like, 5 years and I had kind of come to terms by now with the fact that you didn't feel the same way."

" _5 years?_ " He let out an exasperated sigh. "Rapunzel! You should've said something!"

"I was _trying_ , you big dumbo!" she retorted. "Didn't you ever notice how anytime you needed any sort of favor, I would _jump in_ to help out before anyone else could? Or how I would go out of my way to compliment you all the time? Or how I would give you _really_ long hugs? Or how I _baked you an entire batch of cookies_ for your birthday that one year?"

"Oh." He blinked. "I thought you were just being nice."

She rolled her eyes, letting out a groan. " _Boys._ "

"We're dumb, I know." His expression grew serious. "But…where did you go just now?"

She looked away, fidgeting uncomfortably. "I was just freaked out. I needed some time to process that this whole thing was actually real. That you _actually_ love me, and it wasn't another one of my elaborate apocalypse daydreams where I save you and then you confess your undying love to me."

He eyed her curiously. "Wait, do you actually have those?"

She blushed. "Yeah…sometimes. The world will be falling to pieces and I'll save you in the nick of time and then you tell me you love me. It's kind of insane that all that _really_ happened."

There was a short silence as they gazed thoughtfully out the window, which was now passing over another city being ravaged by earthquakes. Jack thought it was almost disturbing how all this destruction was beginning to feel normal.

But, he decided, he wasn't going to focus on it. He wasn't even going to _think_ about it. Not until later.

He turned and smirked at Rapunzel. "So…Zellie…what happens next in your little fantasies? You know, after you've saved me and we've confessed our love?"

She gave him a smirk of her own, and leaned in until her face was only inches away from his. "This," she murmured. "This happens next."

She pressed her mouth to his and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. Jack pulled her even closer, his entire being feeling giddy as he experienced everything about her that he had only ever dared to dream about. Her soft hair under his hand, her whole body pressed against him, her lips locked firmly with his.

His heart was racing again, but this time from pure joy instead of fear. As they kissed thousands of feet above the dying world, Jack decided that adrenaline _was_ one hell of a drug. And this was the best kind of it.

* * *

 **W00t w00t, apocalypse AU! Pretty closely based off of the movie 2012, in case you couldn't tell. I never actually saw the movie, BUT the concept of civilization crumbling due to natural disasters and people just barely escaping the destruction is great story fuel! And good daydream fuel, for that matter. I'll admit, this story was, in large part, kind of a wish fulfillment because, like Rapunzel, I used to constantly fantasize about the 2012 apocalypse hitting and me and my crush escaping the collapsing city together ^^; And then I would save his life at least once, maybe multiple times, and end up dramatically confessing my love to him XD But hey, if I can't live the 2012 apocalypse wooing-your-crush experience, I can at least give it to my OTP! I know this apocalypse might seem a little over-the-top, but to be fair, the movie itself was pretty over-the-top, so I don't really feel guilty about it. Happy end of the world!**

 **TOMORROW: Rapunzel is convinced that in a school of 4,000, the cute theater boy she just met will just get lost in the crowd. But one chance encounter leads to another…and another. And another. And another. Something strange is going on.**


	5. Fate Drives Us Together

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Word Count: 5778**

 **AU: High School AU**

 **UAs: None**

 **Prompt: Fate Drives Us Together**

* * *

Rapunzel made her way through the throng of people in the hall outside the school theater, trying not to be too pushy but also impatient to see the actors who had come out from backstage. It was a solid 15 minutes after the play had ended, and all of them had emerged to hug their non-theater friends and be given congratulatory flower bouquets by their parents before disappearing again to strike the stage and go to their cast party.

She clutched the _You Can't Take It With You_ program tightly in her hand, craning her neck to try and spot the boy who played Grandpa Vanderhof. Jack Frost, wasn't it? That's what the program had said. All of the actors had done a great job, but him especially she was determined to find and tell him he did amazing. He had been her favorite by far, and his old man voice had had her in stitches.

At last, she made out a striking white head of hair. Ah, there he was! As she started to make her way towards him, she could feel sweat from her palm wetting her program.

She had to admit, she was a bit nervous that this whole exchange would be a bit awkward. After all, she had never seen or talked to Jack before tonight, so perhaps a stranger going and congratulating him would seem a bit out-of-place. Well, even so, it wasn't going to stop her from saying something.

As she got closer to him, Rapunzel stopped in her tracks and sucked in her breath. Oh. Oh god. He was _attractive_. The "old age" makeup had really played it down, but now that it was gone she could see that this boy was about as hot as they came.

She let out a frustrated huff. _I guess that's going to make this even harder, isn't it?_ she thought.

Another one of the actors was just walking away from a conversation with Jack Frost, leaving him open to talk to when Rapunzel had gotten a few feet away. She took the deepest breath as was humanly possible and marched right up to him, trying with all her heart to not show how scared she was. _Don't be awkward, don't be awkward…_

He turned and fixed her with cerulean blue eyes that made her heart do a variety of acrobatics in her chest. Oh great, a bombshell boy who also had amazing eyes. This was not getting any easier.

"H—hi!" She hoped her voice didn't sound too shaky as she gave him the biggest smile she could manage. "Wow, you were so good up there!"

"Hey, thanks!" Jack grinned at her, and she relaxed a little. So far, so good.

"Oh my gosh, you were _so_ funny!" Rapunzel went on. "That voice you were doing was perfect!"

He hunched over, pretending to hold a cane. "What's that? You liked the _voice_ , little missy? Well, let me tell you all about how back in my day, we didn't just give away our hard-earned money to the government unless we knew they were gonna put it to good use! Then again, I don't think they've _ever_ put those taxes to good use!"

At this point, Rapunzel was giggling uncontrollably. She noticed Jack was smirking triumphantly when she finally regained her composure.

"You were hilarious," she repeated. "Seriously, you had be laughing the _whole_ play!"

He put his hand over his heart and let out a little gasp. "You are too kind, my lady! My heart can't take it!"

She laughed softly. Jack smiled and ran a hand through his white hair.

"Honestly though, Grandpa Vanderhof is _so_ me in, like, 60 years. I'm definitely going to be that crazy old man who never pays his taxes and has a bunch of pet snakes. How much more badass can you get?"

"I don't know, it would be pretty hard." She found herself looking at his white hair as she said it. She had thought it was a wig before, but now she could see it was entirely his own. "Did you have to dye your hair for your part?" she asked.

"Yeah, they wanted me to," he replied. "It's gonna stay like this for a while, but I don't really mind. My friends tease me about it making me look super old, but I kind of like how it looks!"

"Me too!" Rapunzel agreed. She couldn't help thinking that he must have bleached his hair very thoroughly for it to look this snowy white without any of the natural color bleeding through. It was certainly striking, and matched his blue eyes perfectly, despite being a hair color that you didn't generally see on young people.

"You look like some sort of ice prince," she added.

"Really?" His eyes lit up. "Cool! Does that mean I get to freeze stuff?"

"I don't see why not!" she laughed. "I feel like it would be well within the power of an ice price to freeze stuff."

"Well, in that case…" He struck a pose, holding his hands out dramatically in front of him. "I hereby condemn you to an eternity of being a decorative ice sculpture!" he bellowed.

Rapunzel crossed her hands over her heart, gasping in mock pain. "Oh no! Please spare me, your majesty! I promise to never steal your snow cones again."

He slipped out of the pose, looking very satisfied with the whole encounter. "Just kidding," he said. "I'm not gonna freeze you with my ice powers. You seem really cool."

Rapunzel tried to fight back the blush creeping into her cheeks, but it was no use. To hide it, she looked down at her program. Looking back up at him after a few seconds, she found herself struck with a sudden curiosity. "Hey…Jack, right?" He nodded. "It says on the program that you're a sophomore, but _I'm_ a sophomore too, and I don't think we've ever had a single class together. Or even that I've seen you around, really. Isn't that weird?"

"Oh, I just transferred here this year," Jack explained.

Rapunzel scratched her head. "Yeah, but…it's almost the end of the year. How have I not seen you around _at all_ for 7 months?"

"Well, it's a big school," he pointed out.

"Still kind of strange," she mused.

"Hey! Jack!"

Both of their heads turned to a girl dressed entirely in stage blacks, standing at the entrance to the theater hallway with one hand on the wall. She was glaring at Jack, fingers drumming with impatience.

"Jack, come on!" she called out. "You're gonna miss strike!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" He turned back and gave Rapunzel an apologetic look. "Sorry, I have to go. But I didn't catch your name."

"Rapunzel," she replied.

"Rapunzel." He grinned widely. "I like it! Super unique." He glanced at the girl in black and then back at Rapunzel. "Anyway, I really do have to run."

She nodded, and he made a dash for the theater hallway. "Nice meeting you, Rapunzel!" he called over his shoulder.

And just like that he was gone, vanishing out of Rapunzel's life as quickly as he had entered it. She started to let out a wistful sigh, but shook her head rapidly from side to side to get rid of the urge. All she had come over to do was tell this boy he had done a good job! And she had done that, hadn't she?

And yet, as she had talked to him, she had found herself becoming quite sad that this amusing theater enthusiast was not in a single one of her classes.

Rapunzel couldn't help but feel a prickle of annoyance that she was too busy with her own extracurricular activities (choir, art club, environmental club, cheerleading, you name it) to join the theater department. Besides, even if she did, there was no guarantee Jack would be in the next play, or even work on it, she reminded herself.

She supposed that there was a chance she could run into him around school. But _not_ having encountered him all year and not sharing any classes or extracurriculars with him…what were the odds?

* * *

Rapunzel shuffled into the lunch line, grabbing a tray and craning her neck to try and see the main entrée. The skinny boy in front of her was wearing a blue hoodie pulled up over his head. She paid no mind to him—instead opting to check her phone as the line shambled along—until he reached back and pulled his hood down, revealing a familiar shock of white hair.

"Jack!" she exclaimed.

He turned and looked at her in surprise. "Rapunzel! Fancy seeing you here."

Rapunzel barely stopped herself from giving a giddy leap of excitement, right in the middle of the school lunch line. _He remembered my name!_

Luckily she managed to keep her composure, instead giving him the biggest smile she could manage. "I didn't know you had this lunch," she said.

"I just switched into it," he explained. "Apparently there's been some scheduling conflict with my other lunch all semester, and the people in the office _just_ now noticed it and moved me to this one."

"Wow." Rapunzel shook her head. "It took them _4 months_ to figure out you were in the wrong lunch period?"

Jack smirked. "Yeah, I guess they were too busy gossiping about all of the juicy teacher drama to worry about petty things like student schedules."

Rapunzel grabbed a pre-packaged salad and a fruit cup, and placed them on her tray. "This school, I swear!"

They scooted down to where the entrée-of-the-day was being kept in a food warmer. Jack squinted at the little plastic containers, looking very uncertain.

"Pizza pockets?" he muttered, half to himself. He turned to Rapunzel with a concerned expression. "I've never had those before."

Rapunzel grinned. "They're actually really good! For cafeteria food, anyway."

"Well, in that case, I'll take two!" He snatched up two of the plastic containers, earning him a giggle from Rapunzel and a glare from the person behind her.

They picked up cookies and paid for the meal, walking out into the cafeteria. Jack waved goodbye to Rapunzel and set out toward the window end of the cafeteria, where a boisterous pack of theater kids were engaging in an animated discussion about whether giraffes could take over the planet if they had hands with opposable thumbs on their front legs.

Even as she walked over to her familiar table with her art club friends, she found herself stealing glance after glance over her shoulder, watching Jack assimilate flawlessly into the theater kids and explain why he did, in fact, believe giraffes were capable of taking over the planet with opposable thumbs.

* * *

Rapunzel romped cheerfully through the grocery store, making her way to the bakery section. It was times like these she couldn't be gladder her school had an open campus, and was only a block away from a shopping center at that. That plus her free period during 6th period came in handy when she needed to run to the store to buy some last-minute food to go along with an 8th period language arts presentation.

Her presentation was all about color symbolism in The Great Gatsby—yellow for wealth, white for innocence, green for hope—so, of course, it was only natural to buy cookies with white, yellow, and green icing to hand out to the class to accompany it. The first thing she spotted when she got to the bakery section was a towering display of every kind of Easter cookie imaginable, on which she was certain she could find cookies with the correct-colored icing.

As she plodded her way around the tall display, eyes scanning it for any sign of a plain old white, green, or yellow-frosted sugar cookie (would mostly-green egg cookies with a tiny bit of pink work, she wondered?), she caught sight of another person next to her out of the corner of her eye. They also seemed to be scouring the cookie display, almost as selectively as she was. Curiosity piqued, Rapunzel looked over—at the exact same time the other person did.

They both jumped back slightly when blue eyes met green. "Jack!" Rapunzel gasped.

"You _again?_ " he asked teasingly.

"Yes, hi, it's me. The girl who you nearly froze with your ice prince powers." She gave him a small smile.

He smiled back, and she felt herself blushing a little. She hoped he wouldn't notice. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Buying cookies to give to the class for my Great Gatsby color presentation!" she explained. "I wanted to get Easter-themed, you know, for fun, but it's kind of hard to find Easter cookies with solid white, yellow, or green icing. They all have designs and whatnot."

Jack nodded, looking a bit impressed. "Wow. That's altruistic of you! _I_ would just buy the cookies and then eat them all as soon as the presentation was over."

"Well…" She gave him a cunning grin. "I'm sure there will be a _few_ left over."

"Still, your teacher should give you extra credit points for the massive amount of self-control it takes to _not_ eat all the cookies you just bought," Jack said. "I'd say that's pretty impressive."

"Ah, thanks!" she said. "So what are you here for?"

He grinned sheepishly. "I, uh…I lost a bet, and now I owe the entire theater department cookies."

"Oh, no!" She regarded him sympathetically. "What was the bet?"

He ran a hand through his thick white hair. "Well…I bet my friend I could sing through the entire _Hamilton_ soundtrack without messing up. I thought after listening to it 6 times, I would be good to go, but…spoiler alert: I wasn't."

Rapunzel laughed. "Oh, wow. I'm sorry!"

"Ah, these will do," he said, picking up a huge container of lavender rabbit-shaped cookies. "Well, I should head to the check-out line," he told her. "But good luck on your presentation!"

"Thanks!" As she watched him walk away and leaned away from the cookie mountain, she realized she had been leaning against a particularly precarious stack of containers, a barely-concealed dreamy look in her green eyes. She let out an alarmed squeak, trying unsuccessfully to reach out and grab the stack as it toppled to the floor in an ungraceful heap.

* * *

Rapunzel made her way through the school parking lot, the last of the cookies from her presentation clutched in her arms. In the end, she had decided on the simple rounded iced ones with the colored sprinkles instead of any of the fancy Easter ones.

As soon as her blue BMW came into view, she let out a small yelp of surprise when she noticed who was unlocking the car right next to it. The familiar white-haired boy looked up, and smirked when he caught sight of her.

"Wow, _seriously?_ " he called out. "You park your _car_ next to mine? You just can't get enough of me, can you, Blondie?"

"I _did not_ park my car next to yours!" she retorted, giving him a steamy look. " _You_ parked your car next to _mine!_ I distinctly remember there not being a car in that spot when I came to school this morning." She pointed to where his white Toyota corolla was now situated.

"Besides, there's no way you got to school before me," she added, walking over and leaning up against the side of her car to talk to him. "I get here early every day for cheer practice."

"You got me there!" He held up his hands in surrender, smiling apologetically. "So how did the presentation go?"

"Great!" She beamed. "Everyone loved the cookies! And, as it turned out, I _did_ have a few left over. You want one?"

"Hell yeah, I do!"

The only type of cookie that Rapunzel had left over were the ones with white frosting, which, she couldn't help but notice, went perfectly with Jack's hair. She opened up the cookie container and plucked one out, tossing it to Jack. He caught it neatly in both hands and took an overenthusiastic bite out of it.

As she watched him munch happily on the cookie, she found herself struck with a sudden curiosity. "Jack, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said through a mouthful of cookie.

"What's your natural hair color?"

"Brown," he told her.

"Really?" Her eyes glinted with sudden excitement. "No way! Mine too!"

He swallowed his bite of sugar cookie and looked at her in surprise. "Wait, you dye your hair? But it looks so natural!"

"Really? Awww, thanks!" She curled a few strands of golden hair around her finger, looking down at it. She _had_ gone to extra pains to make it look authentic, and she was glad it seemed to be working.

"My mother's always going on about how much she loves blonde hair and how good it would look on me, so I thought it would make her really happy if I dyed it!" she added enthusiastically as Jack took another bite of the cookie.

"Oh." He paused mid-chew.

Rapunzel's eyes widened in concern. "What is it?"

He paused. "It's just…you should dye your hair because _you_ want to, not because your mom goads you into it."

She gave him a puzzled look. "She didn't _goad_ me. I did it on my own."

"Yeah, but it sounds like you did it mainly for her," he pointed out. "You should dye your hair for _you_."

Rapunzel hated to admit it, but there was some truth to what he said. "Well…I do like it blonde…" she mumbled, fiddling with the ends of her hair again.

Jack smiled. "As long as you like it!"

He opened up the front door of his car and slid into the driver's seat. "I should be heading home," he told her. "But thanks for the cookie!"

"Oh, sure thing, no problem!" She waved shyly as he closed the door. He waved back, shooting her one last friendly grin before turning the keys in the ignition and looking over his shoulder as he backed out of the parking place. Rapunzel started to circle around to the driver's seat of her own car, but she found her eyes glued to the white Toyota corolla as it pulled out of the parking lot. She watched it as it drove down the street, not taking her eyes off until it had turned a corner and passed out of sight.

* * *

"I'd like to rent out a computer for the period, please." Rapunzel slid her student ID over the library desk. The librarian looked up from her computer, giving the blonde girl a disparaging look through her slanted half-moon glasses.

"Very well," she growled, her voice like sandpaper. She snatched up the ID card and pulled out a number card reading 18, sliding it across the desk to Rapunzel.

Rapunzel made her way over to where the rentable computers were lined up in neat rows, letting out a resigned sigh. She wasn't much looking forward to spending her off-hour working on her Congress of Vienna research paper, but her after-school time was booked with art club and choir and hopefully, when she finally got home, a nap. So what choice did she really have?

She looked down at her card and weaved her way through the rows until she found Computer 18. When she saw who was sitting at Computer 17, she almost laughed out loud. Okay, this was getting ridiculous.

"Hi again," she said, slipping into the seat next to Jack.

He turned and smirked at her, raising his eyebrows. "Are you stalking me?" he asked.

Rapunzel bristled, feeling suddenly defensive. "No!" she retorted, practically shoving her number card in his face. "This is the one the librarian assigned me to, _see?_ "

He regarded the card for a bit and then nodded thoughtfully. Jack knew as well as anyone else that the librarian's word on rented computers was law.

"Well, then I guess this can be chalked up to weird coincidence," he decided.

"I know, right?" she laughed. "Like every time I turn a corner, there you are!"

"And every time _I_ turn a corner, there _you_ are," he replied, smirking. "But hey…as long as you're here…" He glanced over at the librarian's desk. "Don't tell Mrs. Stick-Up-Her-Ass over there what I've really been doing when you turn your card in, okay?"

She glanced over at his screen to see the entire thing taken up by one of the many well-rendered medieval villages of World of Warcraft. "What are you doing?" she gasped. "That sign says the computers are to be used for school work only and that you can't game!" She pointed at the laminated sign on the wall that read in all caps: NO GAMING. COMPUTERS ARE TO BE USED FOR SCHOOL WORK ONLY.

"I know," he replied, simpering. "So can you keep a secret, Punzel?"

Rapunzel sighed. She supposed Jack was well within his rights to use his free period to do whatever he pleased, even if what he chose to do was cutting into extremely valuable homework time. And if she was honest with herself, she could never tattle on him, especially after he gave her that cute nickname.

"All right. Your secret's safe with me."

"You're welcome to join me, if you like," he told her, leaning back in his chair.

Rapunzel regarded the quaint, wooden buildings on his screen, a beautiful, intriguing-looking forest sprawling out in the background. She had to admit, whatever video game quest he was doing looked far more interesting than her essay.

"I can't," she forced herself to say. "I have to write a paper about the Congress of Vienna."

"Oooooh." Jack grimaced. "That sounds like actual torture. Sucks for you!"

"I'm sure it won't be that bad." She tried to sound confident of the fact, although she knew with almost unwavering certainty that Jack was entirely correct, and that she sat upon a throne of lies.

"Sounds like the sort of thing that—" Jack started.

" _Shhhhhh!_ " The hiss reverberated around the library, and both of them spun around to find the librarian glowering at them from her desk. Jack hurried to cover up his screen, which luckily she didn't seem to notice.

When she finally lowered her death glare, Jack looked back at Rapunzel, giving her a shrug and an apologetic smile before turning back to World of Warcraft. Letting out a deflated huff, Rapunzel opened up the Internet and set to work investigating all about what had to be the most boring peace conference in all of European history.

* * *

The tech lab was quiet and empty, just as it often was during 7th period. With no technology studies class in there for Mrs. Stevenson to teach, the only people in the lab were the kids who had off-periods catching up on projects. Such was exactly what Rapunzel was doing. She was finally finishing the graphic design project that had been giving her headaches for weeks, and she couldn't be happier that she was the only student in the lab at the moment. And nothing, she told herself, _nothing_ was going to break her concentration as she plowed through the rest of this.

She was about half an hour into putting a stylized rainbow paint-blot border around her poster when the door to the tech lab swung open. Despite trying to stay focused, her curiosity got the better of her and she looked up.

Rapunzel recognized the short, slender form of Hiccup Haddock who was, as usual, wearing some sort of Dungeons and Dragons shirt and unnecessarily tight-fitting jeans. Hiccup was a good school friend of hers, and they had a fair amount of classes together. He wasn't in the same tech class with her, but she figured he was in one of the other periods. Upon seeing her, he gave her a friendly wave, which she returned with a smile.

"Hey!" he greeted her. "What are you working on?"

"Graphic design poster," she replied. "It's trying to encourage people to adopt dogs and cats from shelters. It's been taking forever because shading the puppies and kittens was super hard, but now I'm finally finishing up!"

"That's great!" Hiccup said.

"How about you?" she asked. "What are you working on?"

"Oh, my partner and I are going to work on our animation project," he replied. He glanced over his shoulder, looking a bit anxious. "Well…when he gets here, anyway. I told him to meet me down here at 1:00, but I was waiting outside the lab for like 10 minutes and he's not here yet."

He rolled his eyes, and Rapunzel shook her head sympathetically. "Some people!" she said.

The sound of loud footsteps echoed in the hallway, and both of them looked toward the door. A second later Jack Frost burst through the door, panting like he had been running at top speed.

"Hic! I made it!" he puffed.

"Yeah, only 10 minutes late!" Hiccup snapped.

Rapunzel looked at Jack, shaking her head in amusement. Of _course_. Of _course_ in the completely empty tech lab on a slow day like Thursday, the partner of the only other person to show up besides Rapunzel was _Jack Frost_. She found she wasn't even surprised by their highly coincidental encounters anymore. Now it seemed more as though she was contractually obligated to run into him at least once a day.

Well…not that she _minded_.

Coincidence was certainly an odd thing. The more she thought about it, the funnier it was that she would keep crossing paths with the same damn kid in a school with 1,000 students per grade.

"Ah, give me a break, I had to finish my World of Warcraft quest!" He pulled a Nestle crunch bar out of his backpack pocket and noisily opened it, taking an enormous bite off of the end. " _And_ buy this crunch bar." Hiccup, for his part, glared daggers at him.

It was then that Jack finally seemed to take notice of Rapunzel. He waved at her with his crunch bar.

"Hi, Rapunzel. Long time no see!" he called out.

Rapunzel laughed. "Yeah, it's been too long, hasn't it? We should catch up!"

Hiccup's expression briefly changed to puzzlement, like he thought it was odd that the two of them knew each other. It quickly changed back to annoyance, and he grabbed Jack by the arm and practically yanked him away.

"Come on!" he grunted. "We've only got 45 minutes, and we need to figure out how to make that gate swing open and the tigers escape from the pen! And you're not even supposed to be eating food in here!" He swatted at Jack's crunch bar, but he managed to pull the chocolate away just in time.

"We're making an animated short where all the animals escape from the zoo and then take over the city," Jack explained, holding the crunch bar high over his head as the shorter boy continuously tried to snatch it.

"Oh, cool!" Rapunzel said. "I'm just doing a poster with puppies and kittens."

"Sounds like fun! We _should_ probably get to work, though." Jack glanced down to where Hiccup was still hopping around trying to get his crunch bar. "Ah, relax, Hiccup. Mrs. Stevenson isn't even here today! And the sub couldn't care less about enforcing the rules. Come on, let's go animate some zoo pandemonium!"

As they walked over and sat at nearby adjacent computers, Rapunzel tried to direct her attention back to her poster. But the more she tried to focus on airbrushing her border into perfection, the more she found her gaze straying over to Jack. Eventually she lost track of how many times her eyes strayed to him, and she could only hope his attention was fully directed to his zoo clip and his crunch bar instead of on the borderline creepy blonde girl staring at him from across the room.

* * *

 _Who's gonna win this game?  
_ _Mil-ton Mus-tangs!  
_ _Who will bring them all to shame?  
_ _Mil-ton Mus-tangs!_

The school fight song reverberated around the gym, mixing with the echoing bouncing of the basketball on the wooden floor as Rapunzel handed the woman at the concession stand a wad of cash. She scooped an enormous mass of popcorn into one of the red-and-white striped "small" bags and slid it over the counter to Rapunzel. Picking it up, she started to trot cheerfully back to her seat, humming along to the song as she went.

She was rounding the corner of an elevated stack of bleachers when she found herself colliding sharply with another human being, sending them both toppling to the ground and half of Rapunzel's popcorn scattering across the concrete floor (that's all right, there was no way she could eat that much on her own anyway).

When she saw who it was, she burst into a full-out laugh despite the pain radiating through her body. The irony of the situation was no longer only mildly amusing. Here was Jack Frost _again_ , at a basketball game of all places (did theater kids ever go to sporting events? Rapunzel had always gotten the impression they didn't), and of course, of all the places he could have been sitting at this basketball game, it was in a place close enough to her seat so that they could bump into each other once again—literally this time.

"Sorry about your popcorn," Jack started, but Rapunzel took no notice. After a few moments he joined in her laughter, and for what felt a long time they sat on the floor, surrounded by spilled popcorn, still smarting from the fall, and laughing their asses off. Several odd looks by passersby later, Jack inquired what the hell they were laughing about.

" _You!_ " Rapunzel burst out. "It's like I can't go more than a day without spontaneously running into you somewhere, and our school has over 4,000 students. _What are the odds?_ "

"Well…" Jack scratched his chin, looking deep in thought before turning and giving her the smirk that had become so familiar. "You _could_ be stalking me, of course. That's the most logical explanation."

Rapunzel crossed her arms. "Ha! Nice try, but I happen to be here for my friend." To demonstrate, she stood up and waved down at Merida Dunbroch on the court, currently standing on the sidelines waiting to be subbed in. Jack stood up in time to see Merida wave back, and also earned himself a sour look and a middle finger from the red-haired girl. He stuck his tongue out in response.

Rapunzel gave him a puzzled look. "You know Merida?"

"Yeah, she's in my Spanish class," he replied. "She doesn't like me very much because I call her _la perra con el pelo ardiente_."

Rapunzel frowned. "Well, that's not very nice!"

Jack shrugged. "Well, she calls me _el pendejo con el pelo helado_ , so it all evens out in the end."

Rapunzel glanced back down at Merida, who was still glowering at Jack and shot him not one, but two middle fingers simultaneously. He shot them right back, lifting his hands up slightly higher to establish dominance.

"So _clearly_ you're not here for her," Rapunzel ventured. "So why _are_ you here, then? I didn't think theater kids liked sports. How do I know _you're_ not stalking _me?_ "

"Nice try Blondie, but I too have a reason to spend an hour sitting in this stuffy gym watching a bunch of over-competitive girls bounce around a rubber melon," Jack replied confidently. "You see, Mr. Felder is my gym teacher, and he also happens to be the girls' basketball coach. He told us he'd give us extra credit if we came to the basketball game, so here I am! Believe me, I need all the extra credit I can get in that class, Punzel."

"Okay, that makes sense." She nodded, satisfied with his explanation. "So…if you're not stalking me and I'm not stalking you, then I guess we really _can_ blame this all on crazy coincidence." She looked at him and shook her head, smiling in wonder. "Wow. This is seriously nuts. I met you like a week ago, and now you're popping up literally everywhere!"

Jack shrugged. "Well, it's not _that_ nuts. I mean, we do go to the same school."

"Yeah, but I'd never seen you at all this year, and then all the sudden I see you _6 times in 1 week?_ Don't tell me you don't think that's a little strange!"

"Well…" Jack gave her a cunning grin, and started to lean in until his face was just an inch or two away from hers. Rapunzel's eyes widened with alarm, her cheeks burning.

He leaned still closer until their mouths were only about a centimeter apart. "Maybe it's fate," he purred in her face. In response, she continued to stare at him in shock.

After a few tense seconds, he burst out laughing, pulling away from her face and holding his ribs from guffawing so hard. "Oh my god, I'm just kidding!" he wheezed in between laughs. "Like I would ever believe in that bullshit. You should've seen your face!"

"Yeah, yeah, very funny," Rapunzel huffed. As relieved as she was the encounter had not gone further, she had to admit she was a bit disappointed as well.

"Hey sorry, I was just messing with you." He smiled apologetically, seeming to catch on to the fact that he had actually upset her a little bit. "Anyway, if I'm inevitably going to keep encountering you, I might as well get to know you. Are you here by yourself?"

"Yeah, actually," Rapunzel admitted. "The friends I was coming with cancelled on me last-minute, but I had already promised Merida I'd come and watch her play."

"Ah, sorry about that," Jack said sympathetically. "But you know, I'm here by myself too. You could come and sit with me, if you like. And…" His eyes glinted mischievously. "I bought a whole bunch of snacks, so I can help compensate for all that popcorn of yours I just spilled."

She beamed. "Really? That—that'd be great, actually!"

"Perfect! This way, then." She followed him in front of the court and up the bleachers to where an enormous stash of cotton candy, pretzels, hot dogs, nachos, sodas, and yes, popcorn was situated, big enough to take the place of a whole other person. Jack gestured proudly to the massive quantity of food, and with an excited squeal, Rapunzel sat down beside it.

And thus was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And perhaps, given enough time, something even better than that.

* * *

 **Damn, another long one! Shit, I need to stop writing novels for these things XD Eh, not gonna complain though, because this one was especially fun to write! I finally got to put my headcanon that Jack would be a hardcore theater kid to good use, although you wouldn't imagine how much of a pain in the ass it was to find a role in a play that I felt was something Jack would enjoy playing AND was an elderly character, hence Jack having to dye his hair white for the part. You can imagine when I came across a crazy grandpa who didn't believe in taxes and kept pet snakes, it felt like a godsend! Also, a bit of theater terminology: In case you didn't know, a "strike" is when the cast and crews of a show take down the set and put all the props away after closing night. Lol I'm sure not all of my readers are as big of theater nerds as I am XD Then again, maybe I'm just being a condescending asshole and literally everyone knows what a strike is…BUT IN ANY CASE, IF YOU HAPPENED TO NOT KNOW, BOOM, NOW YOU KNOW.**

 **Ah, writing this made me a bit nostalgic for my own high school days, especially considering Jack and his interactions with Rapunzel in this are based in part on the interactions between me and my own high school crush (before he turned into kind of an ass, anyway). And I too was in tech studies, had to write about the congress of Vienna, and had to do presentations on The Great Gatsby XD I was in the theater department as well, and I can 1000% confirm that giraffes taking over the world with opposable thumbs is EXACTLY what theater kids talk about. I also included the modern-day equivalent of Mother Gothel being obsessed with Rapunzel's blonde hair, and it not actually being her natural hair color.**

 **Originally I wasn't going to include Hiccup and Merida, but they fit so nicely into the tech room and basketball game scenes that I was like "eh, why not?" Also, if you're wondering, the name Milton High School was chosen completely at random. Okay, not completely—I just thought Milton Mustangs was catchy, and it fit perfectly into the spirit song I made up XD**

 **TOMORROW: She's been in love with him since she was six, but she's in for a rude awakening when she finds out her parents never intended to let her fulfill her childhood marriage promise to him. When she is faced with a difficult choice, she realizes that sometimes you have to make painful sacrifices for those who matter the most.**


	6. Childhood Friend Romance

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Word Count: 5995**

 **AU: Royal AU**

 **UAs: Rapunzel was never stolen as a baby, so she grew up as the princess of Corona. Also, her parents cut her hair when it started to get long, just like any normal parents would. They were surprised when it turned brown, but ultimately just accepted the change and didn't pay much attention to it.**

 **Prompt: Childhood Friend Romance**

* * *

 _Age 6_

* * *

Princess Rapunzel smiled as she closed the back cover of the book. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting on the library floor, and her back was beginning to ache from it, but it had been more than worth it for the riveting tale of a wizard and his brave apprentice who had saved an entire kingdom from ogres and giants using only magic spells.

 _Now, what to read next?_ she wondered. She slid the book back onto the shelf and sprung to her feet, skipping down the massive case of books and scanning the spines for another intriguing one. She was just about to pull out a book titled _The Last Unicorn_ when she heard the distinctive rustling of pages a few shelves over.

Curious, she creeped around the edge of the shelf, tiptoeing toward the sound of pages turning. To her knowledge, she was the only person who frequented the library…or at least the only person who got so excited about the books that she read them without even bothering to find a chair first. She wondered who else would be in here reading on the floor like she did.

The princess turned the corner of one of the shelves and found a little brown-haired boy just about her age lying on his belly, immersed in some fairy tale book with large, beautifully-painted illustrations. He seemed to be scrutinizing each illustration with great care before turning the page and looking at the next one. Rapunzel had never seen him before, but from the looks of his simple, puffed-out shirt and pants, he appeared to be a new servant.

"Hi!" she chirped.

The boy looked up from a picture of a fire-breathing dragon flying high over a mountain, taking in the little girl standing in front of him. She was in a bright pink dress embroidered with white jewels, her translucent collar laced with fabric roses. Her brown hair went just past her shoulders, her bangs braided back around her head in a similar style to how the queen wore her hair. If all that wasn't enough of an indication she was the princess, the diamond-encrusted tiara sitting on her head gave it away.

The boy's eyes widened and he scrambled into a sitting position, ducking into a hasty bow. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, I didn't see you there."

"Oh, you can just call me Rapunzel," the princess assured him. "I don't like all the icky formal stuff. What's your name?"

"Jack Overland," he mumbled, still seeming a bit anxious to be in her presence. "My dad just started working in the kitchens here."

"Whatcha reading, Jack?" Rapunzel bounded over and sat down beside him. She could feel the servant boy stiffen as she pressed up against him, looking down at the book. Marking his place with her finger, she closed the book so she could peek at the cover. " _The Princess and the Dragon?_ How is it?"

Jack looked away. "I…can't read," he told her sheepishly. "So I just look at the pictures and try to figure out what's going on."

"You _can't read?_ " She stared at him in horror.

He nodded. "Yeah, only royalty learn how to read! Didn't you know?"

"Oh." Her face fell. "That's horrible!"

He smiled and shrugged. "It's okay. I really love looking at the pictures!"

"Well, I'll just have to teach you how to read, then!" Rapunzel said excitedly. Jack looked at her in surprise.

"Really? You'd—you'd do that for me?"

"Of course!" she replied emphatically. "No one should have to miss out on reading! You want me to read your book to you?"

"S—sure!" As much as Jack had been enjoying putting his own story together with the pictures, he _was_ curious as to what the black markings all over the pages said. And if this enthusiastic princess (who was _much_ less snobbish than Jack had expected) offered to tell him, who was he to say no?

She flipped the book back to the beginning, turning and giving him a fond smile before beginning.

"Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom far, far away…"

* * *

 _Age 8_

* * *

Jack lay curled under the canopy bed, peeking cautiously out from under the lavender fabric hanging over the side. He snickered to himself, thinking about how Rapunzel would be back from her princess lessons any minute now. All he had to do was wait.

The hinges of the bedroom door squeaked slightly as it swung open, and Jack hurriedly let go of the fabric, shrouding himself in darkness once again. Humming cheerfully, the princess started to make her way toward her bed. Jack tensed, smirking as he prepared to strike.

Like a viper, he shot out from under the bed, seizing hold of Rapunzel's ankles. She let out a scream.

"HaHA!" he cackled. "The mighty dragon has captured his prey!"

"Jaaaaack!" she whined, trying and failing to pull her feet away from him. "Let me go!"

"Resistance is futile as he drags the unsuspecting princess back to his evil lair!" he went on, beginning to climb his hands up the outside of her skirt to try and capture her wrists.

Rapunzel snatched a hairbrush from her dresser and smacked him lightly on the arm, catching him off-guard enough to push him off of her. "What the dragon never suspected was that the princess had a _sword_ with her!"

"Oh no!" Jack stumbled backwards. "This did slow down the fearsome dragon. But it wasn't enough to save the princess!"

He bounced back up again and wrapped his arms around her waist, dragging her toward her bed. Rapunzel continuously smacked him with her hairbrush, although never hard enough for it to really hurt. Still holding onto her, Jack jumped into the bed so that they both tumbled heavily onto it.

He grinned at her, pinning her down to the bed. "Muahaha! Now you're trapped in my evil lair, where no prince or knight will ever find you."

Rapunzel thrust him off of her and slithered on top of him, straddling him with her knees. "That's what _you_ think. But this is actually what I've wanted all along! I'm on a quest to rid this kingdom of the entire dragon race, and you led me _straight_ to Dragon Mountain!"

"Oh no!" Jack eyes widened in mock horror. "I have to warn the others!"

Rapunzel cackled loudly. "Too bad, because you're going to be the _first!_ " She raised her hairbrush, ready to bring it down on his chest, but he grabbed her wrist before she could, pulling her hand away from him. "Not on my watch," he taunted.

They wrestled playfully around on the bed, laughing as each tried to pin the other down. At last, Rapunzel ended up on top again. Having freed her wrists from Jack's grip, she raised her hairbrush and smacked the handle into her friend's chest before he could do anything to stop it.

"Ha! You _failed!_ " she taunted. "Soon, I will rid the world of your entire species! And I will _show no mercy_ , not even to the babies."

"Oh no!" Jack choked. "I can feel the life…leaving my body…" Rapunzel smirked triumphantly.

"But then, with his last dying breath, the mighty dragon let out a burst of fire and burned the wicked princess to a crisp!"

Rapunzel let out a screech, waving her arms around in pretend panic. "Help! I'm on fire! I'm on fire!"

"No one can help you now," he wheezed. He clutched at the air dramatically before closing his eyes and sticking his tongue out like a piece of roadkill. Letting out one last, "Aaaaah, no!" Rapunzel collapsed beside him and did the same thing.

Opening their eyes, they lay there panting beside each other for several seconds. Rapunzel could feel adrenaline still pumping through her blood, and as she thought about her earlier lesson with Lady Traynor, she felt a prickle of unease.

"Jack, are we still gonna be able to have fun like this when we're older?" she asked suddenly.

Jack gave her a puzzled look. "Well…sure! Why wouldn't we?"

"It's just…" She sighed. "During my etiquette lesson, Lady Traynor was telling me all about how princesses had to be all proper and sophisticated, and how any queen has to be serious and responsible or no one will think she's a good queen. So I guess that means that at some point, I can't have any fun anymore."

"Hmmm." Jack creased his brow, giving the matter serious thought. Suddenly, something occurred to him. "Well…people can still have fun together if they get married!"

"Really?" She looked at him hopefully.

"Yeah!" he said. "I hear married people have fun wrestling around on beds together all the time! And probably playing other games, too."

She let out a delighted giggle. "Then one day I'll marry _you_ , Jack! Then we'll never have to stop playing together."

His brown eyes widened in surprise, and he shook his head hurriedly.

"You can't marry me, Zellie!"

Her face fell. "Why not?"

"Princesses can only marry princes! Didn't you know?"

"That's not true!" Rapunzel crossed her arms. "Because princesses become queens, and queens can do whatever they want."

"But you can't be the queen until your mom dies or retires," he pointed out. "Until then, she and your dad can still make you not do stuff."

"Well…" She fiddled with a strand of brown hair. "My parents really love me…I'm sure they wouldn't make me marry anyone I didn't want to! And you're so nice and great…why _wouldn't_ they let you be my husband?"

He looked at her uncertainly. "You sure you could talk them into it?"

"Of course I'm sure," she said. "They're my parents!"

Jack beamed. "Okay! Let's get married, then."

Rapunzel nodded enthusiastically. Her green eyes suddenly alight with mischief, she tensed her legs and unexpectedly sprung onto her friend.

" _Rawr!_ I'm a lioness!" she announced.

"Oh yeah?" he growled. "Well, I'm the really tough giraffe who's _gonna kick you in the face!_ "

They were soon back to their tussling, the topic of marriage long forgotten.

* * *

 _Age 10_

* * *

"Ah, look at those two, running about like spring rabbits!" Maid Fenning chuckled, watching the two brown-haired children dash around the castle gardens. "It's a miracle they haven't trampled any flowers yet."

"You know, I worry about them sometimes." Maid Rosenfeld's voice drifted over from where she was trimming a hedge with a pair of shears.

"Why ever is that?" Maid Fenning asked.

"They're so close!" The other woman turned and gave her a sad smile. "And you know what always happens in the storybooks…the boy and girl who were best friends as children always fall in love when they get older."

"Oh, you silly old hen!" Maid Fenning chortled, waving a hand dismissively. "This isn't a storybook, is it? Alas, if only real life were as romantic as those. I'll bet those two are like brother and sister."

Maid Rosenfeld tutted. "Well, even if you're right, do you think Prince Eugene will be quite all right with his wife being so close with another man after he and Princess Rapunzel get married?"

Maid Fenning raised her eyebrows. "My, that's a long ways in the future! Who's to say they'll still be best friends by then?"

Maid Rosenfeld shrugged. "Well, they'll likely still live in the same castle. It's not as if they'll have any good reason not to be. Besides, have you _seen_ the two? They're practically inseparable!"

"Not as though Prince Eugene would have anything to worry about, even if they _did_ stay close," Maid Fenning decided. "It's not like there could ever be anything between them. She's a princess and he's a servant, for heaven's sake! Surely they both know that?"

Maid Rosenfeld's gaze flitted to the boy and girl romping around, their spirited game of chase sending them around every trimmed tree and topiary in the lawn. "I'm not so sure," she mumbled.

Both women fell silent, and the only sounds in the garden were the excited laughter of the children and the _snip-snip_ of shears on hedgerow.

Across the lawn, Jack finally got close enough to grab Rapunzel behind a seahorse topiary, out of the sight of the nosy servants. "Ha!" he gloated. "Now I get to kiss you!"

Rapunzel had told Jack that he could kiss her if he caught her, and now, after her evading him for what felt like hours, her seemingly-endless energy had finally burned out and he had managed to catch up to her. The princess made a face, clearly not happy about the agreement she had made earlier.

"Do you _have_ to?"

Jack crossed his arms and pouted. "Well, you _said!_ "

"Okay, fine," she huffed.

He leaned forward and planted one sloppily on her mouth, complete with a smooching sound effect. As soon as he had finished, Rapunzel quickly brushed it off with the back of her hand.

"Ew! Boy spit!" She looked at him in worry. "I thought that would be more fun. Do we have to do that all the time when we're married?"

Jack shrugged. "Probably not if we don't want to."

"But…we'll have to do it at the wedding, won't we?"

"Well, you're the princess, aren't you?" Jack pointed out. "Surely you could talk some priest into having a special wedding with no kissing? Bribe him with some of the family treasure, if you have to!" he added with a smirk.

Rapunzel squealed, gleefully bouncing up and down. "That's a great idea! Or maybe I could convince my parents to pass a law saying a marriage can be perfectly valid even if the bride and groom don't kiss!"

"Yeah!" Jack said.

"Phew." Rapunzel breathed out a sigh of relief. "I almost thought that was gonna stop us from getting married."

He shook his head, grinning. "Nah. I think now that we've sorted that out, we're good to go."

* * *

 _Age 13_

* * *

"Psst. Jack! _Jack!_ "

Rapunzel poked her head through the door of the servants' quarters, delighted to see the moonlight filtering into the room outlining a familiar spiky-haired silhouette lying on the bed nearest the door. She started to tiptoe over, getting ready to wake him up, but he rolled over and fixed her with a tired glance before she could. She smiled with relief, glad that she wouldn't have to pull him from his slumber.

"I can't sleep," she said, rubbing the lace of her white nightgown between her fingers.

"Me neither," Jack admitted. "As you could probably tell."

Rapunzel grinned. "Are you up for a midnight adventure?"

He grinned back even wider. "I'm _always_ up for a midnight adventure."

"Come on, then! We have to be super sneaky, though."

He quickly slipped on some clothes (which Rapunzel realized she hadn't even bothered with, still being in her white silk nightgown) and scrambled over to meet her at the door. She smirked down at his feet, realizing neither of them were wearing shoes. Honestly, that was just fine with her. Who needed them anyway when it was so much better to feel the soft grass and smooth cobblestones with your bare skin?

Together they made their way through the dark halls of the castle, careful not to tread too hard on the squeaky wooden floors. Rapunzel turned to Jack and giggled triumphantly as they slipped out of a window, bypassing the guards stationed at the front door. Jack joined in giggling, and Rapunzel grabbed hold of his hand and led him eagerly down the hill toward the town.

It was strange, Rapunzel thought. She and Jack had been holding hands since they were both 6, and it had never felt like anything out of the ordinary. And yet for some reason, this time the feeling of his fingers laced between hers sent chills down her spine. It seemed like her entire body had suddenly started to shake and sweat, and she hadn't the slightest idea why.

The moonwashed kingdom was quiet, save for the chirping of crickets and the hushed whispers and laughs of Jack and Rapunzel. Gone were the yelling merchants with their carts that Rapunzel was so used to seeing in the square, gone were the roaming buyers, and gone was the little band that usually attracted a crowd of dancers. The silence was peaceful, but also wonderfully exhilarating in its utter strangeness.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she whispered to Jack. "Mother and Father would be so mad!"

"I know!" Jack whispered back. "Isn't it great?"

She beamed. "Undoubtedly!"

Her smile faltered as she found herself glancing anxiously at the windows above the shops. "Do you think anyone looking out of there could recognize me?" she asked anxiously.

Jack shook his head. "Nah. You're not wearing anything fancy enough." She eyed her nightgown proudly, relieved she had chosen to leave it on.

As they neared the edge of the island, Rapunzel came to an abrupt stop. Jack jerked to a halt beside her, giving her a perplexed look.

Before them was the gently sloping shape of the white stone bridge, the sprawling hills and dappled forest beyond lit up radiantly by a glowing full moon. Rapunzel swallowed.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"It's just…" She hesitated. "I've never been over this bridge before."

"Me neither," he admitted.

"I'm really scared. I've…I've never been outside the kingdom before."

"So…do you not want to cross the bridge?" He sighed. "Geez Punz, way to get my hopes up. You lead us right to it!"

There was a silence. "No, I _do_ want to cross it," she said finally. "And we're going to."

One of the corners of Jack's mouth curled up into a crooked half smile. "That's more like it."

"This is so _exciting!_ " Rapunzel gave a gleeful hop. "I can't wait to see everything that's over—"

" _Race you!_ " Without the least bit of warning, Jack took off running across the bridge.

"Hey!" she called out after him. She groaned, hearing him laughing up ahead.

Her bare feet pounded on the stone as she ran across the bridge, trying to catch up. It proved to be futile as Jack passed by the turrets marking the end of the bridge when Rapunzel had just barely gotten over the hump in the middle.

"Wooo!" He jumped up and down, pumping his fists in the air.

"Not even fair!" she puffed, joining him a couple seconds later on the dirt path leading into the woods. "You got a _huge_ head start."

"Wasn't that big, Punzel." He smirked.

" _Still!_ " She swatted him, and he snickered.

Rapunzel looked toward the dark outline of the trees, and her breath caught in her throat a little. The leafy tops were like massive, looming stormclouds and the inky trunks underneath were equally as unnerving.

"Oh," she said.

Jack narrowed his eyes. "What is it?"

"The woods look a bit scarier up close."

She was worried he would tease her for being a scaredy-cat, but instead he just shrugged. "That's all right, we don't have to go in there." From the slight shake in his voice, it seemed he wasn't crazy about the idea of going exploring in the dark forest either.

"Why don't we just sit here and relax for a bit?" Rapunzel grabbed his hand and led him to a little stretch of grass by the road. She reclined serenely on it, looking up at the sprawling night sky. Jack followed suit, laying perhaps a bit closer to her than was necessary.

"I don't think I've ever seen the night sky like this," she said. "Just…stretching out above me like some huge dome, going in every direction. I've only ever seen it out my bedroom window."

He smiled thoughtfully. "Yeah…it really is something, isn't it?"

"My parents told me that on their wedding night, they came out and laid down like this outside of the castle courtyard and came up with one reason they loved each other for every star they saw."

Jack gagged loudly. "Ew! Oh my god, that's so _corny!_ Please don't tell me we have to do that on our wedding night, Punz. If we're still getting married, anyway," he added in a mumble.

Rapunzel turned and started at him in horror. "Of course we're still getting married! Whatever made you think we weren't any more?"

He smiled sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. "I dunno, we just haven't talked about it since we were 11. I was making sure you hadn't changed your mind."

"Of course not," she said, sounding offended. "We get married so we never have to stop having fun together. That's _always_ been the plan. Why would it change now?"

"Because I've got some bad news," he said gravely. Rapunzel's eyes widened, and she felt her stomach squirm anxiously. Whatever it was must be had if it could make even Jack be serious.

"What?" she almost whimpered.

"I talked to my mom, and I'm afraid married couples actually _do_ have to kiss all the time."

" _Jack!_ " She swatted him again. "You had me worried."

"You _should_ be worried!" he retorted, although he was smirking. "Weren't you making elaborate plans just a few years ago to have a kissless wedding?"

"Yes, yes I was." Rapunzel let out a resigned sigh. She hated to admit it, but as of late, the idea of kissing didn't seem quite as disgusting as it once had. And she wouldn't be caught dead saying it aloud, but from time to time she had imagined what it would be like to kiss Jack.

Imagined. Just an innocent thought experiment, right? Not that she _actually_ wanted to kiss him. Or anyone.

"I know it's really gross, but if we're going to have to kiss all the time when we're married, we might as well get used to it now," Jack said, sounding defeated.

"I suppose you're right."

Even as she said it, Rapunzel wondered why she didn't try harder to fight back. She wondered why she didn't try harder to convince him otherwise, that they could, in fact, have a kissless marriage if they so pleased and there would be no one with the authority to tell the _princess_ that she needed to kiss her husband more.

Because kissing was gross, right?

Perhaps it was because, when he reached out and pulled her across the grass towards him, the quickening of her heart was due more to excitement than crushing fear.

And when his mouth met hers and pressed against it, the soft feel of his lips distracted her from any gross boy spit. The longer their mouths worked against one another, the less she cared about their saliva mixing a little. Besides, Jack wasn't aggressive. He was adorably timid, making sure not to press the least bit harder than she did or go any farther than Rapunzel herself initiated.

It almost felt like it was over too quickly. Jack pulled away and let out a breath.

"I could actually get used to that," Rapunzel admitted.

Jack grinned widely at her. "Me too!"

* * *

 _Age 16_

* * *

The closet door slipped open a crack as Rapunzel walked by. She suddenly felt a hand grab her arm and yank her inside, pulling her into a sitting position. The princess let out a yelp of alarm as the door clicked shut behind her and shrouded her in darkness.

A familiar snickering floated through the darkness, and Rapunzel glared at its source, forgetting that he probably couldn't see her face. " _Jack!_ "

She hated how clever he was sometimes. Of course he remembered she would be walking through this hallway on the way back from her etiquette lessons.

"What?" he purred. "I just wanted some _alone_ time with you."

She sighed. "And you couldn't wait for me back in my room?"

"Ah, where's the fun in _that?_ " He leaned forward and kissed her nose. "Besides, nobody's gonna guess you're in _here_ if they come looking."

Slowly, her lips curved up into a smile. "Okay, you might be right there."

"Aren't I always?" he hummed.

"Not always, but often enough," she breathed back, leaning forward. In seconds they were kissing ravenously, arms tangled around each other as their mouths worked hungrily at each other and their tongues explored one another's mouth. Jack started to push her towards the floor, and her chest started to heave as she was pressed to the wood with him on top of her. As the kissing got faster and more passionate, both of them found themselves having to frequently stop for breath.

Finally, they pulled apart. "I think I love you," Jack said, his small smile now visible as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

She returned it, her eyes soft. "I know I love you." She wrapped her fingers around the back of his neck and pulled him towards her again.

"You bad, bad boy," she panted between kisses. "Servants don't make out with princesses."

"Hasn't stopped me before," he sang.

"Aren't you scared of getting caught?" she teased.

He smirked at her. "The day I found out we weren't supposed to be doing this, I thought 'oh no, a minor inconvenience' and then kept doing it. If I was really scared of being caught, I would've broken it off right then."

" _That's_ the spirit," she whispered.

"Are we ever going to stop?" he asked, his hands beginning to work their way up Rapunzel's stomach until his fingers were slowly lacing their way around her chest. She didn't make any move to slow him down.

"No, I don't think so," she purred, carefully starting to unbutton his shirt.

* * *

 _Age 18_

* * *

"What the hell do you _mean?_ "

Rapunzel's hands were balled into fists, her skin sweating as her entire world crumbled around her.

"Rapunzel! Watch your language!" her mother scolded. "Princesses don't swear."

The king ignored his wife, shaking his head sadly as he looked at his daughter. "We thought you knew," he said. "We thought you always knew. Betrothals at a young age are just the natural way of things. We needed an alliance with Etheran, and so…" He trailed off.

"You _betrothed_ me?" Rapunzel spat. "To a man I've never even _met?_ And you're just now telling me, after I'd finally gathered the courage to tell you about my relationship with Jack?"

"We thought you knew about betrothals," he mother repeated.

"Of course I knew," the princess hissed. "I just thought you two loved me enough to not do it to _me._ "

"Rapunzel, it's not as though Prince Eugene is an awful person," the king scolded. "I've met him and talked to him on trips to Etheran, and he's a very respectful, charming young man! I'm certain he will make an excellent husband, and if I didn't believe that with all my heart than I would have broken off the engagement."

"We did what had to be done," the queen added.

"What had to be done, sure," Rapunzel said bitterly. "I guess what had to be done was forcing me into an arranged marriage because that's easier for you than going down there yourselves and oh, you know, _working out your difficulties with Etheran_ like mature adults."

"Don't be so disrespectful!" the queen snapped.

"Like it isn't disrespectful to force your daughter to marry a man she's never met so that you can have the _easy way out_ of a diplomatic issue," she retorted.

"Rapunzel, as you keep _obsessively_ pointing out, you've never met Prince Eugene," the king said. "So how can you know for sure you'll be miserable with him? Who knows, if you gave the man a chance, you might even like him."

Rapunzel crossed her arms. "I couldn't care less if I might _like_ him. I love Jack and I want to marry him!"

The queen sighed. "Look, even if it weren't for your betrothal, you could never marry Jack. The future king has to be of royal blood—"

"Why?" Rapunzel challenged. "Jack is charismatic. He's kind. He would understand better than anyone the struggles the peasants have to face and he would work to help _all_ of his subjects. He'd make a wonderful king."

"He's a _servant!_ " the king spat. "We can't have those sorts of dirty lowlifes in our court, let alone on our throne. How would the other kingdoms look at us? Our reputation would be tarnished forever, all because you thought you were in love with some stupid poor boy."

"He's _not_ stupid!" she snarled. "He's clever, and funny, and everything I've ever needed. And if you _really_ loved me, you'd let me marry the boy I loved and find another way to make an alliance with Etheran. If you like, I can even travel there with you and help you talk through the negotiations with them!"

The king shook his head. "It's not happening. My _daughter_ is not going to marry a servant. You're going to marry Prince Eugene, and that's the end of it!"

"But—"

"No buts!" He cut her off. "This is what's best for the kingdom. It's too risky to try and negotiate with Etheran, and the most practical solution is to have you marry this perfectly decent young man."

"Your father's right," the queen added. "We have enough to worry about without you being picky over your husband. Did you really think we were going to let you wed some kitchen boy who doesn't know how to do anything but sweep the floors and carry trays of food around?"

"He can _learn_ how to do other things," Rapunzel retorted.

Her mother snorted. "That's highly doubtful. You mustn't let love blind you to what he truly is."

"But he makes me _happy,_ " she whispered. "Don't you want your own daughter to be happy?"

The king sighed. "Of course we do, but we want the kingdom to be safe and secure as well."

"It can be safe and secure with Jack—"

"NO!" the king roared, with enough force to make Rapunzel wince. "I'm not having this discussion with you any longer. You're marrying Prince Eugene. End of story. I don't care what you think or how you feel, I have to do what's best for the kingdom."

"But if you would _please_ just listen to me—"

"Your father's right," her mother interrupted her. "Enough."

Rapunzel opened her mouth to speak again, and quickly closed it. She gave her parents a long, hard look.

"Fine," she said finally. "You want me to be miserable? You want to split me and Jack up? Fine."

She turned to walk out of the room, sparing them one last glance over her shoulder. "But be careful. You might just lose the princess you worked so hard to save with that golden flower 18 years ago."

* * *

 _Age 19_

* * *

"How long do you think this ride's going to be?"

The wooden wall of the carriage was already beginning to hurt Rapunzel's back as she sat hunched up against it. She shuffled over and adjusted her brown peasant dress, trying to make herself more comfortable. With the dying sunlight streaming in through the cracks in the back compartment, the stacks of wine barrels that were piled behind her conglomerated together into one massive black silhouette.

Jack, sitting across the carriage from her, shrugged nonchalantly. "Who knows? All night, maybe? The next kingdom is a good long ways away."

Her eyes widened in worry. "All night?"

"Yeah!" he replied enthusiastically. "It'll be an adventure!"

"But what if there are road bandits out?" she asked, concerned.

Jack snorted. "Who's going to rob a _cheap_ _wine delivery carriage?_ A gaggle of drunks? It's not like we have a bunch of riches back here."

"All right." She smiled at him weakly before her brow furrowed in concern again. "But are you sure the man driving isn't going to check the back sometime along the way?"

Jack shook his head. "Nah, why would he? He's already loaded everything in, and all the things he needs are up front. Besides, even if he does, it's not like we don't have a place to hide." He gestured toward the stacks of barrels, and Rapunzel nodded slowly.

"Okay. I just…I've never really been in real trouble before. The thought of getting caught doing something like this just…" She trailed off.

He laughed. "Aw, come on! This whole thing is literally the _biggest_ trouble we're ever going to be in. Sorry Punz, but it really doesn't get much worse than this. I mean…the princess abandoning her royal duties to run away disguised as a peasant with her servant lover to start a new life in a faraway kingdom? Does it _get_ more scandalous than that?"

"You do have a point there!" she admitted, chuckling.

The sound of footsteps crunching on dirt sounded outside the carriage. Rapunzel froze, starting to panic until she heard the man open the door to the front compartment and realized he was simply getting in to get ready to go.

"Yes!" Jack said, pumping his fist in the air. "Almost time for our midnight journey!"

He looked over to see Rapunzel was staring at her feet, face etched with uneasiness.

"Zellie?" he said softly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just…I'm leaving a whole _life_ behind, and I'm terrified. I have no idea what to expect."

He bit his lip, suddenly wondering if he was asking too much of her. "You know…you don't have to do this if you don't want to."

"Wh—what?" She stared up at him in surprise.

"It's not too late to go back," he went on. "Jump out of the back of this thing. Run back into your castle. Be a princess again. Save your relationship with your parents and marry Prince Whatshisface…who knows, he might not even be that bad. If that's what you want, I…" His voice cracked slightly. "I won't get in the way."

"But I told you I'd marry you, didn't I?" she protested.

"Rapunzel, we were just _kids._ " He smiled sadly. "I was never going to hold you to that."

"But _I_ was going to hold me to that," she insisted.

He shook his head. "Well, you shouldn't feel like you have to. I don't expect you to love me the same way now that you did when you were a kid. We all change as we grow up."

"Well…maybe I don't love you in exactly the same way I did back then, but I still love you," she said. "And of course I'm going to be scared that I'm leaving everything I've ever known behind. Who wouldn't be? That doesn't mean I'm going to back out at the last minute and scurry back into the castle, like some sort of coward who's not willing to face challenges to be with you. Sorry Jack, but you're stuck with me."

She crawled across the carriage floor and kissed him softly before crawling back to her original spot.

She could see him visibly slump with relief. "That's my girl!" he said, grinning.

The back of the carriage jerked, indicating it was about to leave. "Okay, last chance," Jack told her. "Do you want to go back?"

"No," she said, her voice strong and sure.

"Then here we go!"

The carriage lurched to life, and all of the sudden they were bumping along down the cobblestone pathways leading out of Corona.

"Do you think they'll tell stories about me after I'm gone?" Rapunzel wondered aloud. "Call me 'The Lost Princess?' Weave together wild, elaborate tales about what happened to me?"

The carriage tipped back, traveling over the bulge in the middle of the very same bridge that Jack and Rapunzel had walked across to have their first (teenage) kiss, all of 6 years ago.

"I imagine they will," Jack replied, grinning. "But they'll never know."

And perhaps if Rapunzel had known that meeting a boy in a library would lead to her stealing out of her kingdom for good in the back of a wine carriage 13 years later, she would have been surprised.

Then again, perhaps she would not have been surprised at all.

* * *

 **Phew, just barely managed to not break the 6,000-word mark with this one! Geez, it's like I can't even DO short one-shots XD Well ironically, since this is the second-longest drabble I've written this week, this is the drabble I probably had the LEAST inspiration for. See, I'd already played around with the "childhood friend romance" idea with my She's Not My Girlfriend story, so I had to painstakingly think up something brand new for this. I decided to go with the princess-and-poor-boy Jackunzel AU, which is a personal favorite of mine because it really gives the pairing a fairy tale-type feel while also providing some natural conflict for the story. I'm sure this type of story has been done before, but I sincerely hope I put a somewhat original spin on it ^^; I was a little lost on how to give the story more substance, but while on TV Tropes clicking connecting links from the Childhood Friend Romance page, I came across the Childhood Marriage Promise, and I decided it might be interesting to use that as a driving force for the story. So…here we are with that! Jack and Rapunzel plan on getting married since they're both 8, and are blissfully naïve of outside forces that might get in the way. OH, THE DRAMA! Honestly though, it was nice to show a more nasty side of Rapunzel's parents, considering they were shown to be overly perfect in the movie. Also, poor Prince Eugene D: I wouldn't feel too bad for him, though. I'm sure he also isn't crazy about the idea of marrying a stranger. And who knows? Maybe he'll get re-engaged to the lovely queen of Arendelle after Rapunzel's out of the picture!**

 **Would Princess Rapunzel have ended up happy if she chose to marry him? As per canon, probably! BUT she decides (correctly) that arranged marriage is wrong, no matter how cool the guy you're engaged to is, and goes off and chooses her own husband. You go, girl! (Lol chances are you will see me shit on the concept of arranged marriage as often as possible in my fanfics, no matter who they're between XD Sorry not sorry!)**

 **TOMORROW: Everyone in the Milton High School theater department is getting sick of the unresolved romantic tension hanging in the air between Jack and Rapunzel. So, at the post-musical cast party, they crack a scheme to get them to finally hook up.**


	7. Everyone Can See It

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO SweetasTea ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

 **Word Count: 7038**

 **AU: High School Theater AU**

 **UAs: None, although Jack has dyed white hair and blue eyes in this, not brown hair and brown eyes**

 **Prompt: Everyone Can See It**

* * *

"Elsa?"

The costume crew chief looked up to see Flynn Rider standing at the entrance to the dressing room, holding a red shirt with several undone seams in the left shoulder.

"A hole ripped in my Gaston costume again," he explained. "Would you mind sewing it up?"

"Oh, sure." She smiled at him as she took his costume from him, trying not to let it show how drained she was. The week before the show was called Hell Week for a reason.

"How are rehearsals going?" she asked as she turned the sewing machine on and slid the shirt under the needle.

"Pretty good," he replied. "Everyone's finally got their lines memorized. Although I must say…" He smirked a little. "I'm pretty glad Lumiere and Bimbette #3 aren't in any scenes together, or else I'd be a bit worried about the audience picking up on the palpable sexual tension between a candlestick and a prostitute—or whatever it is the Bimbettes are supposed to be, anyway."

"Flynn!" Elsa scolded. "Jack and Rapunzel aren't like that!"

Flynn snorted. " _Seriously?_ They've been making googoo eyes at each other the entire production!"

Elsa sighed. "All right, that _may_ be accurate enough, but I'm sure that their feelings wouldn't bleed over into their characters! They're good enough actors to draw _some_ sort of line, don't you think?"

"Oh no, Else. You don't understand." Flynn shook his head, grinning. "The romantic atmosphere going on here _transcends_ the lines of in-character and out-of-character. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Jack and Rapunzel started making out with each other on show night right after they bowed."

Despite herself, Elsa laughed. "Now wouldn't that be a riot! Kind of unlikely, though. If they haven't gotten the guts to tell each other how they feel by _now_ , what makes you think anything's going to change in a week?"

Flynn shrugged. "Well, all that pent-up sexual tension's going to reach a peak and explode at some point, isn't it?"

"Or not," Elsa retorted. "They could just stay in the dark forever about the fact that they like each other. You know what my sister told me?"

"What?" Flynn asked.

Elsa smirked. "Rapunzel told Anna she quit choir and joined the theater department _just_ so she could spend more time with Jack, and she _still_ doesn't seem to realize she has a huge crush on him! Said it was so she 'could be better friends with him' or some nonsense like that."

"Ha!" Flynn snorted. "As if! They're so in love it's painful."

"Agreed," Elsa said.

"And honestly I hope they hook up sooner rather than later, because they're super cute together and I'm getting real tired of seeing them shoot moony looks at each other across the room and it never leading to anything."

"They _are_ cute!" Elsa chimed in. "It's a shame they're both way too scared to admit their feelings. I wish there was something we could do to speed up the process, because I think we're all getting tired of waiting."

"Well…" Flynn's lips curved up into a conniving grin. "Maybe there is."

* * *

"What are they _doing?_ " Tadashi peeked out from the lights booth at the still-lit stage. "Dress rehearsal ended 15 minutes ago!"

"What is who doing?" Hiro rushed to the window and followed his older brother's gaze. Two familiar figures were sitting on the empty stage, hugging their knees with their waists just a little too close to one another. They were looking down into the orchestra pit and seemed to be talking to someone down in it, but made no move to scoot away from each other to get closer to the pit.

"I suppose the two lovebirds wanted a little alone time, huh?" Tadashi turned and gave the freshman a knowing look.

"I'll say!" He glanced over at the light controls, and his mouth curled up into a mischievous grin. "Hey, Tadashi…"

"Hmmm?"

"Light A16's the one with the pink gel in it, right?"

"Yep, it is. Why?"

Before he had even finished the statement, Hiro was over at the controls, dimming every single light shining onto the stage.

"Hey!" Tadashi glared at him. "What do you think you're doing, you knucklehead?!"

"Juuuuust setting the mood!" He turned Light A16 up to full power and then adjusted the angle lever so that it shone directly onto Jack and Rapunzel. "There!" he said, grinning triumphantly. "Now all we need is a heart shape."

His brother rolled his eyes. "You know you're going to have to put all of those back the way they were," he grumbled, but a smile was tugging at his lips as he watched Jack and Rapunzel squirm apart, looking around in confusion and shielding their eyes from the bright light.

Hiro chuckled. "Well, not before they finish their little date!"

* * *

"Once-ler, come on. We need to pack up."

Once-ler ignored Kristoff's voice, instead flipping anxiously through the sheet music sitting on his bandstand. "Just a minute," he said. "I just need to look at my music."

Kristoff sighed, and Once-ler spared his fellow pit orchestra member a glance. "Come on, we've rehearsed _dozens_ of times by now," the blonde boy said, desperately trying to shove his enormous cello into its case. "I'm sure you practically know everything by heart. You'll be fine."

"Yeah, but…" He trailed off as he caught wind of two distinct voices drifting down from the stage, one male and one female. He soon recognized them as Jack and Rapunzel, talking animatedly about life and forcing just a little too much laughter at one another's bad jokes.

Once-ler smirked. "You know what?" he said. "You go on and head out. I just need to run through one song I'm having trouble with."

Kristoff shrugged. "All right, but Mr. North wants us out by 9:30." He finally managed to get the stubborn cello in its case, and began to painstakingly drag the huge thing away.

Once-ler hastily flipped through his sheet music until he reached the music for _Something There That Wasn't There Before_. Picking up his bow and violin, he started playing the melody as loudly as he could.

Jack leaned forward and peeked over the edge of the pit, looking puzzled. "Uh…Once-ler? What are you doing down there?"

"Oh, _nothing!_ " he replied, giving him his sunniest smile. "Don't mind me! I'm just practicing this song that I'm having _so_ much trouble with."

Rapunzel's blonde head popped up behind Jack's, looking equally confused. "Really? Because in rehearsal earlier, you sounded great!"

"Oh, _did_ I?" He paused his playing to stroke his chin thoughtfully. "Well, in that case, I guess I just thought it was an ideal time to play the song!"

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Er…why?"

"No particular reason! Just a feeling in the air, I suppose."

He resumed his playing, and an awkward silence fell between Jack and Rapunzel. Finally, Rapunzel smiled uncomfortably, glancing between Jack and Once-ler. "Well, _any_ time is a good time to play _Something There That Wasn't There Before_!" she said cheerfully.

As he finished the song, he noticed it was getting gradually darker around him but didn't pay much mind to it. Rapunzel suddenly let out a squeak of surprise, and Once-ler looked up to see a pink spotlight shining down right onto Jack and Rapunzel.

"What are they doing up there?" she yelped.

"Ah, probably just testing a few lights last-minute," Jack replied nonchalantly.

"But _look!_ " Rapunzel scooted over a couple feet, and Jack followed suit. The pink light followed them movement for movement. They scooted back the other way, and once again the pink spotlight moved right with them.

"What's this all about?" she asked. "Are Hiro and Tadashi just messing with us?"

Once-ler smirked up at her. "I suppose they just thought it was an ideal time to shine a pink spotlight on you two!"

"But _why?_ " Jack and Rapunzel chorused, looking down at him expectantly.

Once-ler shrugged. "I have to head out, it's almost 9:30 and I wouldn't want Mr. North yelling at me," he said casually, slipping his violin swiftly into its case and walking briskly out of the pit.

"Hey, wait!" Jack called after him. " _What's going on?_ "

"Yeah, why is everyone acting so weird around us?" Rapunzel added.

Once-ler turned, smirked at them, shrugged, and continued on his way.

* * *

"Okay, now suck your cheeks in like a fish so I can do your contouring."

Anna and Mavis watched as Rapunzel leaned in with her makeup brush, and Jack started moving his pursed lips and making loud, ridiculous sucking noises before she could mark anything on his face. She giggled good-naturedly instead of snapping at Jack for making her job harder, as any other makeup crew member would have.

Since her role was relatively minor, Rapunzel had volunteered to help makeup crew. No surprise, of course, that somehow she always ended up doing Jack's.

"Okay, okay, hold still," she said, and Jack reluctantly complied. She carefully painted on two brown streaks along his cheekbones, holding his head gently in place with one hand and using the other to blend in his contours. Anna noticed that she seemed to be enjoying touching his face _far_ too much.

"And…there!" She took a step back and looked at her work proudly. "Wow, you look great with makeup. I should give you a makeover some time!"

Jack grinned. "Could you make me pretty?"

" _So_ pretty!" she replied enthusiastically. "In fact, I could put a wig on you and some fake boobs and you'd pass as the most beautiful girl in town!"

" _Yay!_ " He struck a feminine pose and patted his hair.

Rapunzel leaned in and smiled playfully. "Would I be a handsome boy?"

Jack snorted, like it was the most evident fact in the world. "Well, of course! You'd be that super classy guy who wears tuxes and goes to galas all the time and makes all the girls swoon by holding doors open for them and kissing the back of their hands."

Rapunzel beamed. "That's so overly specific and _I love it!_ "

"Could they be any more obvious?" Anna whispered in Mavis's ear.

Mavis turned and smirked at her friend. "Doubt it. If they were any more apparent, the Obvious Police would kick down the door of the dressing room and arrest them both."

"Weewoo weewoo, you're under arrest for _still_ not confessing your undying love, even though everyone knows you've wanted to forever!" Anna hummed.

"Officer no, you don't understand!" Mavis twirled her hair around her finger, imitating Rapunzel's noticeable nervous habit. "We're _just friends_!"

"Well now you're in even more trouble, missy!" Anna said gruffly, pointing a finger gun at Mavis. "Lying to a _cop?_ The nerve!"

"What are you guys talking about over there?" Rapunzel turned and gave her fellow makeup crew members a puzzled look.

"Nothing, Punz!" Mavis sang.

"Just seems like you _really_ like doing Jack's makeup, is all," Anna added, smiling innocently.

"Well, of course I do!" she exclaimed. "His makeup is the most fun."

Mavis shot Anna a smirk, as if to say _oh, sure that's the reason._

"Hey, curtain's in a few minutes, so I should be going," Jack said.

"Okay! See you after dress rehearsal!" Rapunzel waved gleefully at him as he bustled out of the dressing room. With the rest of the actors already out on stage and the rest of makeup crew in the other dressing room, Rapunzel, Anna, and Mavis were left alone.

Mavis heard Rapunzel let out the smallest sigh as Jack shut the door behind him. "What was the sad sigh for, Punzie?" she asked.

Rapunzel exhaled sharply. "Can I…can I tell you guys something?"

Both girls nodded. "Of course!" Anna said.

"I, uh…I think I like Jack. A bit."

Anna snickered briefly before bursting into full-out laughter. "Well, no _duh!_ " Mavis teased.

Rapunzel's cheeks grew bright pink. "Wh—what?"

"It's just funny because you act like it's some big controversial secret, but literally _everyone_ already knows you have a thing for Jack," Anna giggled.

Rapunzel gave them a small smile. "Wow…am I really that obvious?"

Anna nodded. "Yeah, you kinda are."

The blonde let out another malcontented sigh. "Well…not like it matters," she muttered. "There's no way he could like me back."

"Are you kidding?" Anna's eyes widened. "He's totes _crazy_ about you! Remember when you were super stressed about your homework and you were trying to do it backstage but you were also really cold and stressed about your lines so he gave you his hoodie to wear over your costume? And the rest of his doritos? And his _script_ , even though he was trying to memorize stuff too?"

"He was just trying to be a good friend!" Rapunzel insisted. "I mean…why would he like me? He's super hot and super funny and a super good actor…he could do so much better!" She buried her face in her hands.

"Well, you're also super hot and super funny and a super good actor!" Mavis retorted. "So why _wouldn't_ he like you?"

"Because there's just a thousand girls out there who are so much more beautiful and also great actors and singers and just have this magnetic personality. There's no way out of all _those_ , he's gonna fall for his weird dorky art club friend! Come on, I am so far in the friendzone it's not even funny."

Mavis snorted. "More like you're so far up in the clouds, you can't see that the kid's been giving you moony eyes for god-knows-how-long."

"You should confess to him at the cast party!" Anna piped up.

"What? No!" Rapunzel's face went full-on red. "I've already told you, he doesn't like me. And it would just make things so awkward…"

"Not if he feels the same way," Anna retorted. "Come ooooonnnnnn!"

Rapunzel crossed her arms defiantly. "No."

"Do it!" Mavis goaded.

"No!"

"Do it!"

"NO!"

Mavis winced, not expecting the normally soft-spoken Rapunzel to raise her voice. "Come on Punzie, you can't just wait around forever and hope something'll happen!" she said. "He's probably just as scared as you are to admit how he feels."

Rapunzel shook her head. "He doesn't feel anything for me. And I'm _not_ telling him I like him. That'll just…mess up our friendship."

"I think you'd both be a _lot_ happier if you messed it up," Anna replied with a smirk.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and a panicked Jack ran in. "Crap, forgot my candlesticks!" he panted, snatching up the felt hand coverings from where he had left them on the dressing room table. He offered Rapunzel a meek grin, and she gave him a shy wave as he bolted back out of the door.

Mavis turned and smirked at her. "I'll bet you he purposely left those in there just so he would have an excuse to see you again." Anna giggled, giving her friend an approving high five.

Rapunzel shot them both a steamy look. "Shut _up!_ "

"You really should tell him how you feel, Punzie," Mavis urged. "Before it's too late, and he decides to get over you."

Rapunzel shook her head, unmovable as a stone pillar. "No way."

The black-haired girl shrugged. "All right, suit yourself."

Anna gave Mavis an accusing look, seemingly in disbelief that Mavis would give up that easily. In response, Mavis gave her a knowing wink.

"Don't worry, I'm sure there are other ways to get them together," she whispered to her.

"What are you whispering about?" Rapunzel asked, frowning.

"Never you mind, Punz!" Mavis crowed.

* * *

The deafening applause rang in Thiana's ears as she stood in front of the line of actors, hand tightly enveloped in Aster's and ruffled yellow skirt squashed up against his long blue prince jacket. The audience whooped and cheered, and she could feel the smallest teardrops pricking her eyes. Happy tears, but tears nonetheless.

 _Don't get emotional,_ she scolded herself. _Not in front of 200+ people, for goodness' sake!_

Thiana leaned down in a neat bow in unison with the rest of the cast. The curtain began to lower, and she shook a lock of shoulder-length dark brown hair out of her face. It still looked strange without the multicolored tips that had become so ingrained in her identity over the past few years, but the director hadn't exactly been down for a rainbow-haired Belle.

She felt Aster's hand starting to slip out of hers, but she pulled the burly Australian boy into a tight hug before it could. He let out what sounded like a surprised grunt, but didn't seem to mind the sudden burst of affection.

"Oh my gosh, it's just been so much fun working with you!" Thiana gushed. "You were so great to co-star with and this has all been so amazing and I can't believing it's ending and…" She could feel the waterfall of tears waiting on the other side of her eyes, and she was determined to do everything in her power to stop it. "I just…you were so amazing out there, Aster!" she practically sobbed.

Aster hugged her back, and she felt herself relax in his muscular arms. "Ah well, you weren't too bad yourself, Ana," he said gruffly.

"Th—thank you!" Oh no. Here came the dreaded tears. She pulled away slightly to give him an apologetic smile, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "And…wow. Sorry I'm getting so emotional. I thought I could hold myself together but I just…can't believe it's all over!"

"I feel you, sheila." He grinned. "But don't be sad. Just think about what a ripper of a job we did!"

Thiana sighed contentedly. "Yes, we did. Not every day you see that many people give a standing ovation! Al _though…_ " She smirked. "I think we all know who the _real_ stars of the show should have been."

She gestured over to where a certain candlestick and a certain Gaston-pursuing airhead were still holding hands from the curtain call, using their free hands to tap and brush each other just a little too intently as they teased one another lightly.

Aster snorted. "What, _those_ two? Jack Frost's a right pain in the arse, he is! Like that little drongo could ever handle being a starring role! I'll bet he'd just goof off, and—"

"You know what I mean," Thiana cut him off, smirking a little more. She lowered her voice. "I mean, talk about onstage chemistry!"

"Ah!" His dark green eyes suddenly glowed with understanding, and he smirked back.

"Maybe if they got to kiss in a show, they'd realize how they really feel about each other," Thiana reasoned. "Because it's pretty clear they're not going to fess up to each other in real life!"

"Yeah, bloody oath on that," he muttered. "I reckon we'll all be long graduated by the time those two lovebirds finally have a root."

"Well, I hope not!" she said cheerily. "They're _so_ cute together! I want to see them get together already."

Aster sighed. "I'm poised to say that blonde sheila's way too good for him, but who knows? Maybe she can convince ol' Frosty to be a little less of an arse."

"They're just so _perfect!_ " she squealed. "I mean, they complement each other perfectly and they care for each other _so much_ and they make each other laugh and even their _hair_ even goes well together and they just need to get married _right now!_ "

Aster smiled warmly down at the excited girl. "Well, I wouldn't hold your breath. But that _would_ be nice, wouldn't it?"

* * *

"So _how_ many times this week did yeh say yeh saw Jack starin' at Rapunzel backstage?"

Merida asked the question in between plowing her power drill into the set, tearing apart board after board and drenching the stage in wood shavings. Astrid had noticed Merida was quite handy with a power drill. She constantly reminded herself never to get on the redhead's bad side.

"147," Astrid replied, not even skipping a beat. She drove her own smaller drill into a doorframe, being able to easily talk over the much quieter whirr.

"No wee number!" Merida remarked. Continuing to dig her drill into the set, she continued. "And how many times did the lass stare at him?"

"125."

"So I suppose ol' Frosty's the more lovestruck one, eh?" she pondered with a smirk.

"Well, not by a huge margin," Astrid replied, grinning. "Honestly, though, this is getting ridiculous."

Merida rolled her eyes. "Ah, don't make me laugh! It always _has_ been ridiculous."

Astrid shrugged. "All right, I'll grant you that. But it's getting worse. Now it's like every time I turn around, they're shamelessly flirting and giving each other moony eyes. It's…kind of gross, really."

"Amen to that, lass!" The Scottish girl stuck out her tongue, putting down her power drill. "If Ah see them givin' each other those irritatin' pining looks one more time, Ah'm gonna vomit!"

In response, the blonde made a gagging noise. "Really, though, I wish they'd just hook up already," she added. "Then we could all take a breather."

Merida snorted. "Yeh really think that them gettin' together is going tae make their mushy-gushy interactions any _better?_ They'll prolly start using baby voices and callin' each other 'shmooky-poo' or something daft like that!"

"Well, sure, but we all know they're going to hook up _eventually!_ " Astrid pointed out. "And I'd rather it be sooner than later, because I think we're all getting tired of just waiting around indefinitely."

"Are you guys talking about Jack and Rapunzel?"

A third voice joined their conversation, and Astrid looked over to see Hiccup had paused by the piece of set they were taking apart, his arms full of props. He was presumably on his way to put them away, but as would be the case with anyone in the Milton High School theater department, talk of the theater's most prevalent potential couple had deterred him.

"How'd yeh guess?" Merida teased.

"Stab in the dark," he replied cheekily.

"I was just saying how I'd wish they'd just shut up and make out already," Astrid explained. "It's been way too damn long, and no way am I waiting for him to ask her to senior prom!"

Hiccup grinned. "Well, you're in luck then, because it just so happens that I was just talking to Flynn, and he's got a plan to get them to finally confess. _Tonight._ "

"Count me in!" Astrid exclaimed.

Merida looked more hesitant, crossing her arms defiantly. "Come on, there's no way Ah'm participatin' in any of Rider's crazy schemes!"

"Shocking as it is, he's actually thought this one out pretty well," Hiccup said.

"Come on, Mer!" Astrid urged her. "No matter what happens, it'll be entertaining. You know Flynn!"

"Besides, since they obviously don't have the guts to just _tell_ each other they're crazy about each other, this might be our only hope to ever get them together," Hiccup added.

Merida considered for a few seconds, and finally let out a groan. "All right, _fine._ Ah guess if Punzie's gonna drag me intae this dumb theater in the first place so she can woo her crush, it's gonna be all for naught if she doesn't get with his stupid arse."

"Hey, look! There _is_ a hopeless romantic buried deep down inside that ice-cold heart!" Hiccup teased her.

"SHUT IT, HADDOCK!" she roared, causing the brunette boy to laugh so hard he nearly dropped all of his props.

* * *

This was undoubtedly the most confusing post-strike hugging session Jack had ever experienced. And he had experienced a _lot_ of post-strike hugging sessions.

It was a theater tradition that on closing night, after strike was finished, all of the cast and crew would walk around hugging each other, congratulating each other on their great jobs, exchanging emotional words about the show, et cetera et cetera. Jack knew how they went down. They lasted a solid 20 minutes, and there were usually a handful of people who broke down in sobs, a handful of people who exchanged awkward handshakes and forced congratulations, and a handful of people who huddled in the corner doing nothing because they were either uncomfortable with physical contact or just flat-out had no friends. To someone who had been doing theater for as long as he'd been at this school, they were very routine and very predictable.

So it was very easy for him to tell that _this_ particular post-strike hugging session was very weird indeed.

The exchange of hugs, congratulations, emotional words et cetera et cetera had seemed very rushed, only taking about 10 minutes. After that, the entirety of the cast and crew aside from himself and Rapunzel had quickly gathered into a huddle on Stage Right, whispering amongst themselves like they were in some sort of weird cult meeting.

Whenever either Jack or his friend approached the group to try and figure out what all the whispering was about, someone would break casually away and start a conversation with them in an overly friendly manner, getting them talking with each other until they were so preoccupied with the new conversation that the person who had distracted them in the first place could slip unnoticed back into the crowd.

After their latest distractor-induced conversation had simmered out, they both shot puzzled glances at the throng of their fellow theater participants.

"What the hell is going on?" Jack muttered, crossing his arms.

The blonde's green eyes widened in horror. "Oh no…what if they're talking about _us?_ " she whimpered. "What if they secretly hate us and they're talking about how terrible we are and how they're going to kick us out of the theater forever?"

Jack elbowed her playfully in the side. "Come on, I'm sure that's not it!" he said with a reassuring grin, although if he was honest with himself, he wasn't so certain.

"Why else would they be leaving us out, though?" she asked.

"Well, maybe it's just bad luck that we never seem to get into their little huddle…thing," he said, trying to sound nonchalant. "You know, just bad timing that whenever we want to go in, some chatty asshole suddenly wants to talk about some weird topic with us _right then_. Could be coincidence, right?"

"Yeah!" She nodded enthusiastically, seeming to like that conclusion. "Just crazy coincidence. Like how we kept running into each other everywhere a week after we met!"

"Right." He nodded. "Exactly like that. So!" He smiled mischievously. "Would you like to break this particular chain of annoying coincidences and figure out exactly what they're up to over there?"

"I'd love to!" she replied, beaming. They linked arms importantly and strode over to the cluster of theater kids.

As they approached the group, Hiccup turned slightly and appeared to catch them out of the corner of his eye. Before they could get any closer, he rapidly strode over to them, overly cheery smile plastered on his face.

"Hey, guys!" he greeted them. "So I have a really important question, and I was hoping you could help me with it. Who do you think would win in a fight? 3 trillion dragons or the sun?"

"3 trillion dragons, no question," Jack replied breezily. "The dragons could make fireballs that would probably react explosively with the hydrogen and helium in the sun and cause it to blow up into a supernova. What are you guys talking about over there?"

Hiccup completely ignored the question. "Really, you think? Because I'm not sure fire can actually be formed in space, so the dragons would have to drag the sun into a huge oxygenated environment in order to win and so—"

"Hiccup." Jack cut him off, his voice a little sharper. " _What_ are you guys talking about?"

"But the heat of the sun might prove to be too much for the dragons, even if they are pretty heat-resistant otherwise because—"

"HICCUP." Rapunzel joined in, her voice sounding sterner than Jack had ever heard it.

Hiccup winced. "Okay, fine," he sighed. "We were just discussing…uh…taking the lights down. Mr. Mansnoozie told Tadashi to get the word around that…ah…you know…everyone was expected to participate, so he and Hiro were just letting everyone know about that and we were…uh…deciding who would take what light down. It was really boring. Buuuut!" He gave them both what had to be the most nervous, uncomfortable smile Jack thought he'd ever seen. "The good news is that he _exempted_ you two for some reason! So you don't have to worry about any of that weird stuff. And I…ah…just got done being told what my assignment was, which is why I'm talking to you."

Sanderson Mansnoozie, the theater teacher, was a cheerful tubby blonde man who would no more order the entirety of the theater department to climb up on rickety ladders and take down heavy, expensive lights than pour magic black nightmare sand into people's eyes before they went to sleep. Not everyone was going to be comfortable with taking down lights, and it was obviously Light Crew's job.

"Really?" Jack raised his eyebrows. "So every other actor and crew member has to do it?"

"And if that's all it was, why didn't anyone say so before?" Rapunzel added.

"Uhhhhhh…" Hiccup looked away for a bit before turning back to them and beaming. "Well, you see, we didn't want you two to get the bighead seeing as Mr. Mansnoozie seems to be giving you special treatment and whatnot. So we thought maybe we could keep you in the dark forever. Silly us!"

"But the other crews and the cast have never had to take down lights before," Jack pried.

"Well…ah…it's a new thing," Hiccup said quickly. "Yep, Mr. Mansnoozie wants us all the help from now on. Forever and ever! Except for you guys."

Jack noticed that the gossiping cluster was starting to disband, the whispers starting to louden into talk of carpools for the cast party. Hiccup glanced behind him, and also picked up that this was the case.

"Oh, would you look at that!" he exclaimed. "Looks like light assignments are all figured out! Well, I'd best be on my way. Gotta make sure Elsa knows I'm riding in her car!"

He scurried away before Jack or Rapunzel could ask any more questions, leaving the two to exchange an utterly perplexed look.

* * *

"Oi! Rapunzel! C'mover here, we need to talk tae yeh!"

Rapunzel barely had time to react before Merida was dragging her away from her conversation with Jack, so forcefully that her sprite was sloshing around in her cup as she was pulled across the floor. She awkwardly waved goodbye to the white-haired boy before she was yanked into Anna and Elsa's dining room, the door being slammed shut behind her. Inside, Anna, Mavis, Thiana, Astrid, and Elsa were standing in an expectant circle, all either giggling or wearing a smug grin.

It was the first time all night Rapunzel had ventured into the dining room, and she had to admit it was quite lavish. The table was long and polished, and several wooden cabinets with fine china lined the walls. It had been the natural decision to have the cast party at the Arendelle sisters' house, given that a few years ago they had inherited a small fortune from a distant relative who just happened to be a descendent of Norwegian royalty. A small fortune that was, conveniently enough, just big enough to get the Arendelles a small mansion the perfect size for parties.

"Punzie, guess what?" Mavis gushed, snapping Rapunzel out of her trance admiring the crystal chandelier. "We came up with a new game!"

"Oh!" Her eyes sparked with interest. "What game?"

"Basically it's like Spin the Bottle, only _so_ much better," Anna explained excitedly. "So how it works is a bunch of guys and a bunch of girls put blindfolds on, and walk around in a big open circle thing. Then, the first person you bump into, you have to kiss for a solid minute! _Without_ taking the blindfold off!"

"And then after the minute's up, everyone gets to see who they kissed!" Thiana squealed.

"Oh, that should be fun!" Rapunzel said gleefully. "I can't wait to see who kisses who!"

"And yeh know what the best part is, lass?" Merida asked.

"What?"

The redhead smirked. "We've all volunteered _you_ tae go first!"

"Wh—what?" Rapunzel's cheeks grew bright red. "But…but why me?"

Merida snorted. "Come on, Punzie, yeh haven't kissed a boy since that wee blondie from that one summer camp when yeh were _12!_ About time yeh got some more action, don't yeh think?"

"Well…" She rubbed the back of her head, realizing that her friend had a point. It was a bit embarrassing that she was a junior in high school and had _still_ not had her first real kiss. Maybe if this was her chance to have it, she should take it…even if it was with some random person behind a blindfold.

"Sorry Rapunzel, but you're kinda overruled on this one," Astrid said, smiling apologetically. "We've all already taken a vote, and it's a unanimous decision that you should go in first."

She bit her lip uneasily, squirming slightly under all of her friends' expectant gazes. Finally she took a deep breath and forced a smile.

"All right!"

All of the girls cheered, giving celebratory hops and pumping their fists in the air. It was beyond Rapunzel why they wanted so badly for her to go first, but either way, she was sure it would be a fun, or at least interesting, experience.

"I already have the blindfold!" Mavis screeched eagerly, bounding forward waving around a red bandana clutched tightly in her palm.

Rapunzel waited patiently as her friend tied the piece of fabric around her head, asking her sternly over and over if she could see anything at all. At one point she could just barely see through the translucent bandana, and it occurred to her that she could easily say she couldn't see a thing and then have at least some idea who she was kissing. But Rapunzel had never been much one for cheating the rules, so she admitted she could still see and let Mavis adjust the blindfold until there was nothing in her vision but inky black.

Rapunzel felt Anna's small hands begin to turn her in circles to disorient her. Apparently the room where this game took place was supposed to be a mystery as well.

"So are any of you guys going to play with me?" she asked nervously.

Merida laughed. "We're not going tae _tell_ yeh who all is playing! Where'd be the fun in _that?_ "

Rapunzel smiled in what she hoped was the general direction of the Scottish girl, but she felt her stomach twist with nervousness. It would be more comforting knowing that if she was going to kiss a random person, one or more of her friends were as well. But she had no idea if they were even in the game.

Anna started to lead her through the house, first across a room with a cold tile floor and then across two rooms with what felt like hardwood floors. Finally, they stopped in a room with a carpet, where Rapunzel felt Anna's hands clutch her shoulders tightly to stop her and then fall away completely.

"Okay, now don't talk," the redhead whispered in her ear. "It's no fun if the other players can recognize your voice before the game even starts! We're trying to keep it completely anonymous."

Rapunzel nodded, although she couldn't help wondering why this casual kissing game had such weirdly specific rules.

"Oka, so here's how it's going to work!" Anna announced. "Players, the open circle is right in front of you. Anyone you run into in the circle is fair game for making out. If you run into someone on the edge of the circle who's not playing, they'll tell you so you don't shove your tongue down their throat or anything. So is everyone ready?"

Rapunzel nodded, her heart speeding up a little bit.

"All right, GO!"

Rapunzel stepped out into the open space around her, tentatively feeling in front of her. For a long while, there was nothing, no matter how far she explored in the circle. Her reaching hands only grabbed hold of air.

After a while, she started to get impatient, and her tentative feeling became impatient swipes. On one fling of her left arm, she smacked something soft yet smooth, and she realized she had finally found another human being.

Her first instinct was to apologize, but she remembered what Anna had said, and remained silent. Instead, she started to timidly run her hands up the person's waist and across their arms, trying to get a feel for the person she'd be kissing. Her partner soon started doing the same, equally as gingerly. She could feel a thin T-shirt, spindly arms, a narrow waist…and the hands currently sliding over her body had a familiar slight coolness to them. Was it…?

No, probably not. Out of all the people in the theater department, what were the chances? Best not to get her hopes up.

Whoever it was, she sure liked their body type.

When her hands found their face, she decided it was time to just bite the bullet and do it. She grabbed their cheeks and pulled them toward her, making both teenagers' mouths collide heavily.

The kiss started out tentative, but quickly grew deeper and deeper as their lips grew accustomed to one another. The only thought Rapunzel had throughout the entire thing was _Wow. This kid is_ _good._ Maybe it was just her lack of kissing experience talking, but whoever she was kissing was moving their lips in perfect sync with hers, and when they eased their tongue into her mouth, it didn't feel weird or gross…it felt entirely natural.

As they went on, a strange, tickling sensation filled her stomach, driving her to press her lips even harder and making her want more and more and more. It was nearing a peak when Anna's loud voice snapped her out of the moment.

"Okay! Time's up!"

Feeling the tiniest wave of disappointment coarse through her, Rapunzel pulled away from the other person. She caught her breath, her heart still racing slightly.

"Now, on the count of three, everyone take off their blindfolds!"

This was it. The moment of truth.

"One."

Oh god, what if it was Hiccup? Or Aster? Or _Hiro the freshman?_

"Two."

Nah, this person was too tall to be Hiccup or Hiro, and too skinny to be Aster. At least she hoped.

"THREE!"

Rapunzel peeled the bandana off of her head to find herself looking into the crystalline blue eyes of Jack Frost. Her face lit up into a delighted beam, and to her relief, his did the same.

"It's you!" he exclaimed happily.

"Y—yeah, it's me." She shyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Wow, you were really good," he said. "Like, even better than I always imagined you would be! N—not that I spent a lot of time imagining what you would be like…or anything…"

He looked away, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "Ah, sorry!"

She reached out a hand and turned his face back toward him. "It's all right," she told him, smiling softly. "Don't worry about it. You were really good, too."

They were interrupted by the loud cheering of their classmates. They looked way from each other and realized the entire cast and crew of the show had gathered in a crowded circle around them, watching them intently.

Jack glanced around and narrowed his eyes. "Hey, wait a minute…why is no one else in the circle with us?"

"Surprise!" Flynn cried gleefully. "It was all a setup!"

"We did the same thing to Jack that the girls did to you," Kristoff told Rapunzel. Once-ler, Flynn, Hiccup, Aster, Hiro, and Tadashi were gathered in a tight group around him, all grinning.

"Yeah, there's actually no one else playing," Astrid explained, crossing her arms and smirking. "We all just wanted to see you two kiss!"

"See us kiss?" Rapunzel raised her eyebrows. "But why?"

"Do you _really_ not know?" Flynn facepalmed. "Oh my god! Just shut up and confess already!"

"Confess _what?_ " Jack demanded, although his cheeks were growing pinker and pinker by the moment.

"You know what I fucking mean!" Flynn snapped. "Or should _I_ tell them?"

Jack's eyes widened with alarm, Flynn's comment appearing to convince him. His head snapped back to Rapunzel, and he seemed to have to force himself to meet her eyes.

"Rapunzel, I uh…I really like you," he stammered. "Like a lot. Like a whole fucking lot. And I've been wanting to say it for a long but I was so worried you'd say no and—"

" _Jack!_ " She cut him off, glaring at him. "I like you too, you idiot! I have ever since I saw you in _You Can't Take It With You_ last year!"

He smiled meekly. "Heh…I think I started liking you as soon as you compared me to an ice prince, you know, in that first conversation we ever had."

Rapunzel rolled her eyes. "You should've _said_ something sooner!"

"Well, so should you!" he retorted.

"That's what we've _all_ been sayin'!" Merida bellowed, waving her arms around in aggravation.

"Well, cat's out of the bag now, isn't it?" Hiccup added triumphantly.

"You know…you really _are_ a very good kisser," Jack said playfully.

"Encore!" someone from the back of the crowd shouted.

" _Kiss!_ " Thiana shrieked, and before long the entire theater department had broken into a chant. "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

Jack and Rapunzel smiled warmly at each other and leaned in, both happy to oblige.

* * *

MK craned her neck to see over the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of the kissing boy and girl. When at last she caught sight of them, she smiled, shaking her head.

"I never knew they had a thing for each other," she commented.

Her boyfriend Nod turned and gave her a skeptical look. "Seriously?"

She elbowed him playfully in the side. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. _Everyone knew!_ "

* * *

 **Eyyyy, there's my last Jackunzel week story! High School Theater AU because…why just have regular boring old high school AU when the more specific and interesting High School Theater AU is so much more fun? Like you can put the different characters in different stage crews based on their personality, and cast them in romantic roles in plays depending on who you ship with who and—ah, who am I kidding? It's because I'm too nostalgic for high school theater since I wasn't able to continue it in college, so of course I'm going to make a modern AU one-shot about it XD Also, a bit of theater terminology: for those of you who don't know, a "gel" is the translucent colored thing that you put in a stage light to make it a different color. And I defined this in my Day 5 story so you probably already know, but a "strike" is when the actors and crew members take the set down and put all the props away after closing night.**

 **So this is supposed to be a sequel to my Day 5 "Fate Drives Us Together" story, if you hadn't figured it out already! It didn't start out being that, but the more I wrote on it, the more I realized it made sense for it to be, and it would be cute.**

 **Once again, it was a bit of a pain to find a play/musical with suitable roles for both Jack and Rapunzel, especially since I wanted to give Rapunzel a relatively minor role (seeing as she's only been in the theater for a few months, so it wouldn't make much sense for her to suddenly be getting starring parts. Most people have to work their way up to them). I finally settled on Beauty and the Beast, which my own high school did as their musical the winter of my senior year. Jack is certainly dramatic enough to be Lumiere, and Rapunzel would probably have a great time playing a brainless bimbo, despite her being far from one herself! I'm rather pleased with who I picked for the starring roles as well—the bubbly Toothiana as Belle, the grumpy yet secretly sweet Bunnymund as the Beast, and the cocky Flynn as Gaston. Come on, tell me that doesn't work!**

 **Aaaaand holy shitcakes…I thought that my "She Is Not My Girlfriend" drabble was going to be my longest, but boy, was I mistaken! I topped the 7,000-word mark with this one O_o Ah well, I suppose that's what happens when you put fucktons of major animated CGI characters in one story and try to give them all a fair amount of spotlight XD**

 **Speaking of which, I DID try to add as many major CGI characters as I could, but unfortunately I did also have to leave some out so the story wouldn't be novel-length ^^; So sorry to Tadashi's friends, Hiccup's friends besides Astrid, etc. Just wasn't enough room, you guys! Maybe in a future story. Also, my apologies if the Once-ler and/or Mavis are OOC in this. I haven't seen either of their respective movies, so I was writing them solely based on their character profiles on the Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons wiki and how I've seen them written in other fanfictions ^^; Same with MK and Nod, although they only had a couple lines of dialogue, so that shouldn't be as much of a problem. Speaking of which, kudos to you if you can recognize where that dialogue is from!**

 **Meh…I honestly hope this story wasn't too excessive XD It might have seemed like a bit much that literally EVERYONE was talking about when Jack and Rapunzel were going to hook up, so…maybe I took the prompt too literally ^^; Also, if you're wondering why I shortened "Toothiana" to just "Thiana" it's because…idk, a name with "Tooth" in it is just a really awkward name for a high school student XD Granted, "Rapunzel" and "Hiccup" are also awkward names for high school students, but I can't get away with changing those, now can I? XD**

 **Lol with all of these CGI characters, I was SO tempted to put in ship tease for all of the pairings I ship, but I refrained because I wanted to keep the focus on Jackunzel. Except in one instance, which kinda wrote itself without my knowledge or consent. Hope you guys like Sweet Tooth!**

 **So that's it for Jackunzel week! I've had a blast writing all of these stories, and I hope you guys have enjoyed my submissions!**


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